8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother: 10 Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother. 11 But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing; 12 And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies. 13 And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies: 14 But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Zechariah 7:8-14
Commentary on Zechariah 7:8-14
(Read Zechariah 7:8-14)
God's judgements upon Israel of old for their sins, were written to warn Christians. The duties required are, not keeping fasts and offering sacrifices, but doing justly and loving mercy, which tend to the public welfare and peace. The law of God lays restraint upon the heart. But they filled their minds with prejudices against the word of God. Nothing is harder than the heart of a presumptuous sinner. See the fatal consequences of this to their fathers. Great sins against the Lord of hosts, bring great wrath from his power, which cannot be resisted. Sin, if regarded in the heart, will certainly spoil the success of prayer. The Lord always hears the cry of the broken-hearted penitent; yet all who die impenitent and unbelieving, will find no remedy or refuge from miseries which while here they despised and defied, but which they then will not be able to bear.