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.

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."

7:14 They laid the land desolate - By their sins.