Zechariah 11

The Doomed Flock

1Open your doors, Lebanon, So that a 1fire may feed on your 2cedars.2Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen, For the magnificent trees have been destroyed; Wail, oaks of Bashan, Because the 3impenetrable forest has come down.3There is a sound of the shepherds’ 4wail, For their splendor is ruined; There is a 5sound of the young lions’ roar, For the 6pride of the Jordan is ruined.

4This is what the Lord my God says: “Pasture the flock doomed to 7slaughter. 5Those who buy them slaughter them and 8go 9unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for 10I have become rich!’ And their 11own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6For I will 12no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will 13let the people fall, each into another’s 14power and into the 15power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will 16not rescue them from their 17power.”

7So I 18pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, 19therefore also the 20afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two 21staffs: the one I called 2223Favor, and the other I called 24Union; so I pastured the flock. 8Then I did away with the three shepherds in 25one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also 26was tired of me. 9Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to 27die, 28let it die, and what is to perish, 29let it perish; and 30let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10And I took my staff 3132Favor and cut it in pieces, to 3334break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was 35broken on that day, and 36so the 37afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. 12And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my 38wages; but if not, 39never mind!” So they weighed out 40thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the 41potter, 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 42Union, to 43break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15And the Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a 44foolish shepherd. 16For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will 45not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will 46devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.1747Woe to the worthless shepherd Who abandons the flock! A 48sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His 49arm will be totally withered, And his right eye will be 50blind.”