Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 1:6

"But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." — Zechariah 1:6 (ASV)

Only My words and My decrees - Which God spoke by them, “Did they not overtake them?” (Zephaniah 2:2). Pagan reminiscence of God’s justice acknowledged, “Rarely has punishment, with limping tread, relinquished the fleeing miscreant.” “All these curses,” Moses foretells, “shall come upon thee and overtake thee, until thou art destroyed” (Deuteronomy 28:45).

And they returned to God and said - The history of the Jews in Babylon is omitted in Holy Scripture, except for His special dealings with Daniel and his three companions. Yet Jeremiah confesses in words what Zechariah apparently had in his mind: “The Lord hath done that which He purposed; He hath fulfilled His word, which He commanded in the days of old” (Lamentations 2:17). The Lamentations are one long confession of deserved punishment, such as Daniel also made in the name of his people, including himself (Daniel 9:4–16).

It was one long waiting for God and for the restoration of His visible worship. Yet repentance was a condition of their restoration.