Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 7:10

And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

And oppress not – He had commanded positive acts of love; he now forbids every sort of unlove. He that oppresseth the poor, Solomon had said, reproacheth his Maker. The widow, the orphan, the stranger, the afflicted Pro 24:31, are, throughout the law, the special objects of Gods care. This was the condition which God made by Jeremiah; If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this, place Jer 7:5-7. It was on the breach of the covenant to set their brethren free in the year of release, that God said; I proclaim a liberty for you to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth Jer 34:17.

And let none of you imagine – that is, devise, as, by Micah, God retorted the evil upon them. They devised evil on their beds; therefore, behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks Mic 2:1, Mic 2:3.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 10. Evil against his brother in your heart.] Do not indulge an unfavourable opinion of another: do not envy him; do not harbour an unbrotherly feeling towards him.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Oppress not; do not first misreport their persons, their actions, and their cases, and on that pretence do them wrong, and oppress them: it is double oppression, to oppress by false information, and then condemn; the first is an oppression of righteousness, the next is oppression of the righteous.

The widow, i.e.: a catalogue of helpless ones, who are under the peculiar tutelage of God, Exo 22:21,22; Deu 10:18; 14:29; 24:17,19; Isa 1:17,23, &c.

Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; neither think ill of, nor wish ill to, nor plot evil against, one another.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. imagine evilthat is,devise evil. The Septuagint takes it, Harbor not the desire ofrevenge (Le 19:18). “Deviseevil against one another” is simpler (Psa 36:4;Mic 2:1).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor,…. Such as have no husband to provide for them, nor father and mother to care for them, and are in a strange land, where they have no friends or acquaintance, and are poor, and can not help themselves. Laws of this kind were frequently inculcated among the Jews; see De 24:14:

and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; thoughts of evil are sinful, and forbidden by the law of God, as well as actions, which agrees with our Lord’s sense of the law, Mt 5:22, see Le 19:17.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He mentions here some other duties, but for the same purpose of showing, that the fear of God is not proved by ceremonies, but by acting justly towards our brethren, and not by abstaining only from doing wrong, but by being ready to help the miserable. As widows, and orphans, and strangers are exposed as it were to plunder, Moses often in the law recommends them to favor, and shows that God cares for them, and will be their defender, when by one injured. So also the Prophet speaks here expressly of widows, and orphans, and strangers, that the Jews might understand, not only that they were to take heed, lest any one, being wronged, should complain, or lest any one should retaliate an injury, but that they were to observe integrity before God; for the ungodly are often terrified by fear, and refrain from doing mischief, because they know that there will be an avenger. Hence it comes that the rich and the opulent are safe from all injuries, because they are surrounded and fortified by strong defences; but the widows and the orphans are not thus able to repel wrongs. This is the reason why the Prophet prefers here to mention widows, and orphans, and strangers, rather than to speak indiscriminately of all the people. For the import of the whole is, as I have reminded you, that the fear of God is not really proved, except when a person cleaves to what is just and right, and is not restrained by fear or shame, but discharges his duty as it were in the presence of God and of his angels, so that he shows favor to the poor and miserable, who are without any to help them. But as I have elsewhere explained this subject more at large, it is enough now briefly to touch on it. (73) Let us proceed —

(73) There is one sentence passed by unnoticed, rendered thus by Newcome, —

Neither imagine in your heart Every man evil againsthis brother.

Verbatim it is—

And the evil of (or, evil to) man, his brother, Devise ye not in your heart.

They were not to devise or contrive in their hearts any evil or wrong to man, he being a brother. This sense is given in the Targum, and by Grotius, Henry, and others; but Henderson, following the Septuagint, gives another meaning; and his version or rather paraphrase is —

And think not in your heart of the injury Which one hath done to another.

But the original can hardly admit of such a construction: the former, no doubt, is the true meaning. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(10) And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.Better, and imagine not evil against one another in your heart. The LXX., ( ), and Auth. Version are here grammatically incorrect, the pronoun being not here (as it is in Zec. 8:17) the nominative but objective case, as is shown by the collocation.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Zec 7:10. Let none of you imagine, &c. Let none of you devise in your heart the hurt of his brother.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Zec 7:10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

Ver. 10. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless ] Widows and orphans are God’s clients, taken into his special protection.

The stranger ] Whose right is so sacred, saith one, that there was never nation so barbarous that would violate the same.

Nor the poor ] Whose misery moves compassion without an orator. In the Low Countries they may not beg, but only look pitifully. To grind the faces of such is barbarous cruelty; to wrong them, or but wrangle with them, is called man-eating, Psa 14:4 .

And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart ] For though you never act it, yet Fecit quisque quantum voluit, He does anything whatever he wished, saith Seneca. It is said, Jos 24:9 “Balak arose and fought with Israel,” and yet the story saith nothing so. Sed fieri dicitur quod tentatur aut intenditur, saith Ribera upon Amo 9:5 . He did not, because he dared not; yet he is said to have done it because he had a mind to do it. A man may die of an inward bleeding; so of heart sins, which are maioris reatus, greater guilt, as we see in devils, though outward sins are maioris infamiae, greater dishonour, as the schools well observe.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

oppress not the widow. stranger. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 22:21, Exo 22:22. Deu 24:17). App-92.

nor = and.

evil. raa. App-44.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

oppress: Exo 22:21-24, Exo 23:9, Deu 24:14-18, Deu 27:19, Psa 72:4, Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23, Pro 23:10, Pro 23:11, Isa 1:16, Isa 1:17, Isa 1:23, Jer 5:28, Jer 22:15-17, Eze 22:7, Eze 22:12, Eze 22:29, Amo 4:1, Amo 5:11, Amo 5:12, Mic 2:1-3, Mic 3:1-4, Zep 3:1-3, Mal 3:5, Mat 23:14, 1Co 6:10, Jam 5:4

imagine: Psa 21:11, Psa 36:4, Psa 140:2, Pro 3:29, Pro 6:18, Jer 11:19, Jer 11:20, Jer 18:18, Mic 2:1, Mar 7:21-23, Jam 1:14, Jam 1:15, 1Jo 3:15

Reciprocal: Exo 22:22 – General Deu 23:16 – thou shalt not Deu 24:17 – pervert Eze 18:8 – hath executed Eze 18:12 – oppressed Zec 8:17 – let Jam 2:6 – Do

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Zec 7:10. It is not only wrong to engage In the actual cruel dealings against the helpless, but also to be only thinking about it.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary