Zechariah 11:17

Zechariah 11:17 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
• New International Version (NIV)“Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!”
• English Standard Version (ESV)"Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"
• New King James Version (NKJV)“Woe to the worthless shepherd, Who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm And against his right eye; His arm shall completely wither, And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”

Context of Zechariah 11:17

15Then the Lord said to me, Zechariah, ‘Take again the tools of a useless shepherd. 16I have chosen a man to watch the sheep. He will not help the sheep that are dying. He will not look for the sheep that have gone away. He will not help the sick sheep or feed the strong sheep. He will eat the meat of the fat sheep. He will tear off their feet to get all the meat. Bad things will happen to the bad shepherd who leaves his sheep. His enemy's knife will cut his arm and his right eye. His arm will become like a dry stick. And his right eye will no longer be able to see anything.’

Zechariah 11:17 word by word

ה֣וֹי רֹעִ֤י הָֽאֱלִיל֙ עֹזְבִ֣י הַצֹּ֔אן חֶ֥רֶב עַל־זְרוֹע֖וֹ וְעַל־עֵ֣ין יְמִינ֑וֹ זְרֹעוֹ֙ יָב֣וֹשׁ תִּיבָ֔שׁ וְעֵ֥ין יְמִינ֖וֹ כָּהֹ֥ה תִכְהֶֽה׃ סRead the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Woeהוֹיhôy · woe!H1945
• to the idolאֱלִיל'ĕlîyl · idolH457
• shepherdרֹעִיrô‛îy · to shepherdH7473
• that leavethעָזַב‛âzab · to leave: forsakeH5800
• the flockצֹאןtsô'n tse'ôn · flockH6629
• the swordחֶ֫רֶבchereb · swordH2719
• upon his armזְרוֹעַzerôa‛ zerôa‛ zerô‛âh zerô‛âh · armH2220
• and upon his rightיָמִיןyâmîyn · rightH3225
• eyeעַ֫יִן‛ayin · eyeH5869
• shall be cleanיָבֵשׁyâbêsh · to witherH3001
• shall be utterlyכָּהָהkâhâh · to grow dimH3543

Cross-references for Zechariah 11:17

• Jeremiah 22:1The Lord said to me, ‘Go down to the palace of the king of Judah. You must say to him,
• Ezekiel 13:3This is what the Almighty Lord says: Terrible trouble will come to those foolish prophets. They have not seen any vision from me but they tell people their own ideas.
• Ezekiel 34:2‘Son of man, you must speak my message to the shepherds of Israel to warn them. Tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Terrible trouble will come to you shepherds of Israel who only think about yourselves. Shepherds should take care of the sheep and feed them.
• Matthew 23:13Jesus spoke to the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees. ‘It will be very bad for you,’ he said. ‘You are hypocrites! You have stopped people who wanted to go into the kingdom of heaven. It is like you have shut the door so that they cannot go in. Then you yourselves do not even go in.
• Luke 11:42It will be very bad for you Pharisees! When you grow spices to cook with food, you give a tenth part of these small things to God. You are right to obey this rule. But you do not do the most important things. You do not help people in a good way. You do not really love God. You should have done the important things as well as the other little things.
• Isaiah 9:15The head is their leaders and important people. The tail is the prophets who teach lies.
• Isaiah 44:10Only a fool makes an idol and thinks that it is his god. An image cannot help him.
• Jeremiah 23:32Yes, I am against those who have dreams and use them to deceive people. They are using cruel lies to lead the people away from me. I did not send those prophets to speak on my behalf. They do nothing to help my people.’ That is what the Lord says.
• 1 Corinthians 8:4So think about food that people have offered to idols. You ask, ‘Should Christians eat that food?’ We know that no idol is really alive. We also know that there is only one God.
• 1 Corinthians 10:19So think about food that people offer to idols as a sacrifice. I am not saying that the idols are real gods. The food that people offer to them is not special food.
• John 10:12Another man may take care of sheep so that he gets money. But the sheep do not belong to him. A man like that is not the shepherd. If a wolf comes, a man like that runs away when he sees it. He leaves the sheep in danger. Then the wolf attacks the sheep. It causes them to run away in all directions.
• Isaiah 6:9The Lord said, ‘Go! Tell my message to those people: “You will continue to listen, but you will never understand! You will continue to look, but you will not see anything!”
• Isaiah 29:10It is the Lord who has caused you to be like that. He has caused you to be completely asleep. He has shut the eyes of your prophets and he has covered the heads of your seers.
• Isaiah 42:19Who is blind? Nobody is as blind as my servant. Who is deaf? Nobody is as deaf as the one who takes my message. The people that I agreed a covenant with are blind! Yes, the servant of the Lord is truly blind!
• Jeremiah 50:35The Lord says, ‘I am sending an army to fight against Babylon. They will attack the people of Babylonia, its leaders and its wise men.
• Hosea 4:5You are always falling over. In the day and in the night, you trip and you fall. The false prophets are the same as you. So I will destroy Israel, your mother.

Commentaries on Zechariah 11:17

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 17Wo to the idol shepherd - האליל רעי roi haelil, "the worthless," or "good for nothing shepherd." The shepherd in name and office, but not performing the work of one. See John 10:11. The sword shall be upon his arm - Punishment shall be executed upon the wicked Jews, and especially their wicked kings and priests. See Zechariah 11:16. Arm - the secular power; right eye - the ecclesiastical state. His arm shall be clean dried up - The secular power shall be…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 17Woe to the idol shepherd - (A shepherd of nothingness, one who hath no quality of a shepherd;) “who leaveth the flock.” The condemnation of the evil shepherd is complete in the abandonment of the sheep; as our Lord says, “He that is an hireling and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling and…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 15-17Verses 15-17 God, having showed the misery of this people in their being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd, receives…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 17This oracle of woe is a poetic curse against the worthless shepherd for abandoning the flock. The arm and right eye represent the physical and mental abilities of the shepherd. The injured arm and blinded eye leave the worthless shepherd without strength or vision. These wounds bring his selfish and harmful rule to an end.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1717. the idol--The Hebrew expresses both vanity and an idol. Compare Is 14:13; Da 11:36; 2Th 2:4; Re 13:5, 6, as to the idolatrous and blasphemous claims of Antichrist. The "idol shepherd that leaveth the flock" cannot apply to Rome, but to some ruler among the Jews themselves, at first cajoling, then "leaving" them, nay, destroying them (Da 9:27; 11:30-38). God's sword shall descend on his "arm," the instrument of his tyranny towards the sheep (2Th 2:8)…Read the comment

Topics related to Zechariah 11:17

• Children
• Minister, Christian

In the dictionaries

• Weigh
• Bible, the
• Clean
• Eye
• Salvation
• Shepherd
• Zechariah, Book of

Commentaries on Zechariah 11

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings