Zechariah 11:4-17

4Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to 1slaughter. 5Those who buy them slay them and 2go 3unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for 4I have become rich!’ And their 5own shepherds have no pity on them. 6For I will 6no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will 7cause the men to 8fall, each into another’s 9power and into the 10power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will 11not deliver them from their 12power.”

7So I 13pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, 14hence the 15afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two 16staffs: the one I called 1718Favor and the other I called 1920Union; so I pastured the flock. 8Then I annihilated the three shepherds in 21one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also 22was weary of me. 9Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to 23die, 24let it die, and what is to be annihilated, 25let it be annihilated; and 26let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10I took my staff 2728Favor and cut it in pieces, to 2930break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was 31broken on that day, and 32thus the 33afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. 12I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my 34wages; but if not, 35never mind!” So they weighed out 36thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the 37potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. 14Then I cut in pieces my second staff 3839Union, to 40break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a 4142foolish shepherd. 16For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will 43not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will 44devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.1745Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A 46sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His 47arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be 48blind.”