Zechariah 7:8-14 - Disobedience, The Cause Of Exile

⁸ And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, ⁹ "Thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, 'Execute true judgment, and show mercy and loving-kindness, every man to his brother. ¹⁰ Do the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and poor no wrong: and let no man imagine evil against his brother in his heart." ¹¹ Nevertheless, they would not take heed, but turned their backs and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. ¹² Yea, they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the law and words, which the LORD of Hosts sent in his holy spirit by the prophets afore time. Wherefore the LORD of Hosts was very wroth at them. ¹³ And thus is it come to pass, that like as he spake and they would not hear: "Even so, they cried and I would not hear, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, ¹⁴ but scattered them among all Gentiles, whom they knew not. Thus the land was made so desolate, that there traveled no man in it neither to nor fro, for that pleasant land was utterly laid waste."