Zechariah 11:1-10

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.