Zechariah 7

9. speaketh--implying that these precepts addressed to their ancestors were the requirements of Jehovah not merely then, but now. We must not only not hurt, but we must help our fellow men. God is pleased with such loving obedience, rather than with empty ceremonies.

10. imagine evil--that is, devise evil. The Septuagint takes it, Harbor not the desire of revenge ( Leviticus 19:18 ). "Devise evil against one another" is simpler ( Psalms 36:4 , Micah 2:1 ).

11. pulled away the shoulder--literally, "presented a refractory shoulder"; an image from beasts refusing to bear the yoke ( Nehemiah 9:29 , Margin).
stopped . . . ears--( Isaiah 6:10 , Jeremiah 7:26 , Acts 7:57 ).

12. hearts . . . adamant--( Ezekiel 3:9 , 11:19 ).
Lord . . . sent in Spirit by . . . prophets--that is, sent by the former prophets inspired with His Spirit.
therefore . . . great wrath--( 2 Chronicles 36:16 ). As they pushed from them the yoke of obedience, God laid on them the yoke of oppression. As they made their heart hard as adamant, God brake their hard hearts with judgments. Hard hearts must expect hard treatment. The harder the stone, the harder the blow of the hammer to break it.

13. he cried--by His prophets.
they cried--in their calamities.
I . . . not hear--retribution in kind ( Proverbs 1:24-26 , Isaiah 1:15 , Micah 3:4 ).

14. whirlwind--of wrath ( Nahum 1:3 ).
nations whom they knew not--foreign and barbarous.
desolate after them--after their expulsion and exile. It was ordered remarkably by God's providence, that no occupants took possession of it, but that during the Jews' absence it was reserved for them against their return after seventy years.
they laid . . . desolate--The Jews did so by their sins. The blame of their destruction lay with themselves, rather than with the Babylonians ( 2 Chronicles 36:21 ).
pleasant land--Canaan. Literally, "the land of desire" ( Jeremiah 3:19 ).