| 1 | Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! |
| 2 | Wail, O fir tree
and
cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the glorious
and
lofty trees are laid waste! Wail, O you oaks of Bashan, for the thick
and
inaccessible forest [on the steep mountainside] has in flames been felled! |
| 3 | A voice of the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory, the broad pasturage, is laid waste! A voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of the Jordan [the jungle or thickets] is ruined! |
| 4 | Thus says the Lord my God: Shepherd the flock [destined] for slaughter, |
| 5 | Whose buyers
or
possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and they who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich! And their own shepherds neither pity
nor
spare them [from the wolves]. |
| 6 | For I will no more pity
or
spare the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord; but behold, I will deliver every man into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his [foreign] king. And [the enemy] shall lay waste the land, and I will not deliver [the people] out of the hand [of the foreign oppressor]. |
| 7 | So I [Zechariah] shepherded the flock of slaughter, truly [as the name implies] the most miserable of sheep. And I took two [shepherd’s] staffs, the one I called Beauty
or
Grace and the other I called Bands
or
Union; and I fed
and
shepherded the flock. |
| 8 | And I cut off the three shepherds [the civil authorities, the priests, and the prophets] in one month, for I was weary
and
impatient with them, and they also loathed me. |
| 9 | So I [Zechariah] said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let the survivors devour one another’s flesh. |
| 10 | And I took my staff, Beauty
or
Grace, and broke it in pieces to show that I was annulling the covenant
or
agreement which I had made with all the peoples [not to molest them]. |
| 11 | So the covenant was annulled on that day, and thus the most wretched of the flock
and
the traffickers in the sheep who were watching me knew (recognized and understood) that it was truly the word of the Lord. |
| 12 | And I said to them, If it seems just
and
right to you, give me my wages; but if not, withhold them. So they weighed out for my price thirty pieces of silver. |
| 13 | And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the potter [as if He said, To the dogs!]—the munificently [miserable] sum at which I [and My shepherd] am priced by them! And I [Zechariah] took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. |
| 14 | Then I broke into pieces my other staff, Bands
or
Union, indicating that I was annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. |
| 15 | And the Lord said to me, Take up once more the implements [the staff and rod of a shepherd, but this time] of a worthless
and
wicked shepherd. |
| 16 | For behold, I will raise up a false shepherd in the land; the lost
and
perishing he will not miss
or
visit, the young
and
scattered he will not go to seek, the wounded
and
broken he will not heal, nor will he feed those that are sound
and
strong; but he will eat the flesh of the fat ones and break off their hoofs [to consume all the flesh]. |
| 17 | Woe to the worthless
and
foolish shepherd who deserts the flock! The sword shall smite his arm and his right eye; his arm shall be utterly withered and his right eye utterly blinded. |
Cross references:
-
Zechariah 11:8 : Jer. 2:8, 26; 18:18.
-
Zechariah 11:13 : Matt. 26:14, 15; 27:3-10.
-
Zechariah 11:15 : Ezek. 34:2-6.
-
Zechariah 11:17 : Jer. 23:1; John 10:12, 13.
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