Zechariah 7:8-14

New King James Version

Disobedience Resulted in Captivity

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

^(A)‘Execute true justice,
Show ^[a]mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother.
¹⁰^(B)Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
^(C)Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’

¹¹“But they refused to heed, ^(D)shrugged^[b] their shoulders, and ^(E)stopped^[c] their ears so that they could not hear. ¹²Yes, they made their ^(F)hearts like flint, ^(G)refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. ^(H)Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. ¹³Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so ^(I)they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts. ¹⁴“But ^(J)I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”