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Are these not the words which the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets,[a] when Jerusalem and its surrounding cities were inhabited and secure, when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited? The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.(A) 10 Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor;[b] do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.(B) 11 But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.(C) 12 And they made their hearts as hard as diamond(D) so as not to hear the instruction and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So great anger came from the Lord of hosts: 13 Just as when I called out and they did not listen, so they will call out and I will not listen, says the Lord of hosts. 14 And I will scatter them among all the nations that they do not know.(E) So the land was left desolate behind them with no one moving about, and they made a pleasant land into a wasteland.

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Footnotes

  1. 7:7, 12 Earlier prophets: see note on 1:4.
  2. 7:10 Widow…orphan…resident alien…poor: four categories of socially and economically marginalized persons. Concern for their well-being is commanded in both pentateuchal and prophetic literature.