Zechariah 7:14

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹"This is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another. ¹⁰Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.' ¹¹But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. ¹²They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law and the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. ¹³Therefore just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁴But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned a pleasant land into a desolation."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

scattered: Zechariah 2:6, Zechariah 9:14, Leviticus 26:33, Deuteronomy 4:27, Deuteronomy 28:33, Deuteronomy 28:64, Psalms 58:9, Isaiah 17:13, Isaiah 21:1, Isaiah 66:15, Jeremiah 4:11, Jeremiah 4:12, Jeremiah 23:19, Jeremiah 25:32, Jeremiah 25:33, Jeremiah 30:23, Jeremiah 36:19, Amos 1:14, Nahum 1:3, Habakkuk 3:14

whom: Deuteronomy 28:33, Deuteronomy 28:49, Jeremiah 5:15

the land: Leviticus 26:22, 2 Chronicles 36:21, Jeremiah 52:30, Daniel 9:16-18, Zephaniah 3:6

the pleasant land: Heb. the land of desire, Daniel 8:9

Reciprocal: Esther 3:8 - scattered abroad Isaiah 28:12 - yet Isaiah 40:24 - and the Jeremiah 9:16 - scatter Jeremiah 29:18 - will deliver Jeremiah 34:22 - and I will Ezekiel 5:10 - the whole Ezekiel 5:12 - and I will scatter Ezekiel 12:19 - that her Ezekiel 20:6 - which is Ezekiel 22:15 - scatter Ezekiel 26:12 - thy pleasant houses Ezekiel 33:28 - I will lay Joel 2:3 - and behind

Cross-References

Genesis 7:2
You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,

Genesis 7:3
and also seven of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, in order to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.

Genesis 7:8
The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground

Genesis 7:9
came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But I scattered them with a whirlwind,.... Denoting the fierceness of his wrath, and the strength of his fury, seen in their dispersion:

among all the nations whom they knew not; such as the Babylonians, Medes, and Persians, people before unknown to the Jews:

thus the land was desolate after them; that is, the land of Judea was destitute of inhabitants, or had but few remaining in it, after the Jews were carried captive into Babylon; for the rest, after the death of Gedaliah, fled into Egypt:

that no man passed through, nor returned; neither from Egypt, nor from Babylon, until the seventy years of captivity were ended; nor indeed did any from other nations pass through and fro, or settle in it, during this time, that we have any account of:

for they laid the pleasant land desolate; either the Israelites by their iniquities, which were the cause of it; or the Babylonians, as the instruments of God's vengeance. This pleasant land is the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey; the glory of all lands, for its great fruitfulness, and delightful situation; and especially for being the seat of the divine Majesty, and where his people dwelt, and where his temple was, and he was worshipped; see Ezekiel 20:6 Deuteronomy 8:7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But I scattered them - Rather, “And I will scatter them.” The saying continues what God had said that he had said, and which had come to pass. Among all nations whom they knew not. So God had repeatedly said by Jeremiah, “I will cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; where I will not show you favor” (Jeremiah 16:13; add Jeremiah 15:14; Jeremiah 17:4). This was the aggravation of the original woe in the law: “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance” Deuteronomy 28:49-50. There was no mitigation of suffering, when the common bond between man and man, mutual speech, was wanting.

That no man passed through nor returned - Literally, “from passer through and from returner;” as in the prophecy of Alexander’s march and return, “because of him that passeth by and of him that returneth” Zechariah 9:8; and of Seir God saith, “I will cut off from him, passer-through and returner” . As we say, there shall be no traffic more through her.

And they made the pleasant land desolate - They were the doers of what they by their sins caused, by bringing down the judgments of God. Heretofore the land which God had given them, had been in our language “the envy” of all who knew it now they had made it into a desolation, one wide waste Joel 1:7; Isaiah 13:9; Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 50:3; Jeremiah 51:29.

Dionysius: “What is said in the beginning of the chapter against Jews who abstained indiscreetly, applies mystically to all, not inward, but rude Christians, who not being diligent enough but rather negligent about acts of piety and inward prayer and reformation of the powers of the soul, account highly of bodily exercises and outward observances, and use no slight scrupulosity as to things of less moment, and do not attend to the chief things, charity, humility, patience meekness. On these it must be inculcated, that if they wish their fasts and other outward exercises to please God, they must judge true judgment, and be compassionate, kind, liberal to their neighbors, keep their mind ever steadfast in God, cast away wholly all hardness of heart, and be soft and open to receive within them the word of God. Otherwise their land will be desolate, that is, deprived of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they scattered amid various vices.” Jerome: “That which was formerly a pleasant land, and the hospice of the Trinity, is turned into a desert and dwelling-place of dragons.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 7:14. I scattered them with a whirlwind — This refers to the swift victories and cruel conduct of the Chaldeans towards the Jews; they came upon them like a whirlwind; they were tossed to and fro, and up and down, everywhere scattered and confounded.