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Zechariah 7:13

It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;

  • KJV King James Version

    Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    And it came to pass that, as He called, and they would not hear; so they shall call, and I will not hear, said the LORD of hosts;

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Cross-references (17)

Passages linked to Zechariah 7:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Proverbs 1:24-28 Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention; but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;
  • Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
  • Jeremiah 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
  • Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them.
  • Micah 3:4 Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”
  • Psalms 81:8-12 “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me! There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.
  • Proverbs 28:9 He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
  • Jeremiah 6:16-17 Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’
  • Luke 19:42-44 saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
  • James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
  • Proverbs 21:13 Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.
  • Isaiah 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.
  • Ezekiel 14:3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them?
  • Ezekiel 20:3 “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will not be inquired of by you.” ’
  • Matthew 25:11-12 Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
  • Luke 13:25 When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
  • Luke 13:34-35 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (11 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet sets forth more fully the dreadfulness of…

The Prophet sets forth more fully the dreadfulness of this punishment — that they in vain groaned and complained, for God was deaf to their complaints and cryings. When God in some measure fulminates and becomes soon reconciled, he does not seem to be greatly incensed, but when the miserable whom he afflicts by his hand, avail nothing by their entreaties and prayers, it then appears evident that God is in no common degree offended. This then is what the Prophet meant by saying, that they were not heard by God when they cried.

But we must notice what is said of their perverseness; for he says, that God had called, and that he was not heard by them. Now it cannot be deemed an unjust reward, that God should punish the contempt of his word; for how great is the honor by which he favors miserable wretches, when he invites them to himself, and most expressly invites them? When, therefore, the calling of God is thus rejected and despised, do not they who are so refractory deserve what the Prophet declares here — that they would have to cry in vain, as God would be deaf to their groanings?

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As to the words, the change of person may embarrass the unlettered, but it is a mode of speaking common to the Prophets, for they assume the person of God in order to gain more authority to their doctrine; and they spoke sometimes in the third and sometimes in the first person: when in the first God himself speaks, and when in the third it is in the character of ministers, who declare and deliver, as it were from hand to hand, what had been committed to them by God. Hence the Prophet in the first clause speaks as God’s minister; he afterwards assumes his person, as though he were God himself. But this, as it has been said, was done with regard to the word delivered. It was, that as he called and they heard not, etc. Who called? It is not right to apply this, as some do, to the Prophet; he, therefore, charges here the Jews, no doubt, with the sin of turning a deaf ear to God’s word. So, he says, they shall call, and I will not hear. It might have been said, “so they shall call, and the Lord will not hear.” There is in the meaning, as we see, nothing obscure or ambiguous.

The import of the whole then is, that God had not threatened in vain by his ancient Prophets; but that as he had denounced vengeance by the mouth of Isaiah, so it had been executed on the Jews, for they had without effect cried, and found God a severe judge, whose voice they had previously despised. We indeed know, that it is a truth often repeated, that the ungodly are not heard by God; nay, that their prayers are abominable; for they profane God’s name by an impure heart and mouth whenever they flee to him, as they approach him without faith and repentance. We then learn from these words, that those who perversely despise God’s word deservedly rot in their own calamities; for it is by no means right or reasonable that the Lord should be ready to hear the crying of those who turn a deaf ear to his voice. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Zec 7:13 Therefore it is come to pass, [that]…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Therefore it is come to pass; this is the…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Zec 7:13-14. Therefore — On this very account; as…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And it came to pass - that is, this…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain So shall. It seems the past time would be…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain he cried--by His prophets.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Therefore it is come to pass.—LXX., wrongly, καὶ…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain As he cried. As the Lord called to them…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 I will scatter them with a whirlwind

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