Zechariah 7:11. Pulled away the shoulder— They refused to obey, and turned their backs on instruction. The Hebrew סררת ףּכת ויתנו vaiittenu kateph soreret is literally, They gave a backsliding shoulder; like him who offers his shoulder to carry a burthen with another, and afterwards slides from it, and leaves his companion overpowered with the weight. See Calmet. read more
11. pulled away the shoulder—literally, "presented a refractory shoulder"; an image from beasts refusing to bear the yoke ( :-, Margin). stopped . . . ears— (Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 7:26; Acts 7:57). read more
12. hearts . . . adamant— (Ezekiel 3:9; Ezekiel 11:19). Lord . . . sent in Spirit by . . . prophets—that is, sent by the former prophets inspired with His Spirit. therefore . . . great wrath— (2 Chronicles 36:16). As they pushed from them the yoke of obedience, God laid on them the yoke of oppression. As they made their heart hard as adamant, God brake their hard hearts with judgments. Hard hearts must expect hard treatment. The harder the stone, the harder the blow of the hammer to break it. read more
C. The command to repent 7:8-14Having referred to the words of the former prophets (Zechariah 7:7), Zechariah now summarized them as an exhortation to his own generation of Israelites. read more
When the former generations of Israelites had heard these commands, they refused to pay attention to the Lord. They turned away from Him stubbornly like a rebellious ox, and they put their fingers in their ears so they would not hear Him. They hardened their hearts (minds and wills) like flint (Heb. shamir, diamond) so they could not hear the Law or the Holy Spirit’s messages through the former prophets whom God had sent to them."This remarkable doctrine of the Holy Spirit as mediator of God’s... read more
Warnings From the PastChs.7 and 8 go together, and were spoken on a date (fourth day of the ninth month in the fourth year of Darius) two years later than the series of visions described above, viz. in 518 b.c. (On contemporary events see on Zechariah 6:8.) They are Zechariah’s answer to a question put to him by certain visitors to Jerusalem, who asked whether the fast observed by the Jews in the fifth month, in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, should still be kept.... read more
(8-14) The prophet implies that true fasting is to loose the bands of wickedness and leave off oppression. But Israel had adopted quite the opposite course, and therefore God, in accordance with Deuteronomy 4:27, had scattered them among the nations. read more
(11) Pulled away the shoulder.—Better, offered a stubborn shoulder (Nehemiah 9:29), as an ox that refuses to receive the yoke. read more
(12) Adamant stone means a very hard stone; “diamond” is the modern form of the word. “Adamant,” adhámas, meaning in Greek unconquerable, was originally applied to “steel” (Hesiod). LXX. explain the metaphor, “made the heart disobedient.” read more
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Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Zechariah 7:11
"But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they might not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which Jehovah of hosts and sent by his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of hosts."These verses are one of the most eloquent witnesses in the Bible to the effect that the Law, that is, the Pentateuch, existed before the former prophets (all of them).... read more