Zechariah Chapter 11

Good and Bad Shepherds

¹ Open your doors, Lebanon,

      so fire can consume your cedar forests.

² Wail, cypress trees, for the fallen cedars;

      The stately trees have burned up.

Wail, oaks of Bashan;

      the thick woodland has been cut down.

³ The shepherds wail

      because their good pasture’s gone.

The young lions roar

                  because the jungle by the Jordan is decimated.

Zech 11:1-3

⁴ Yahveh my God says,

“Pasture the flock that’s doomed to slaughter. ⁵ The buyers butcher them without remorse. The sellers say, ‘Praise Yahveh, I’m rich!’ Their own shepherds don’t care about them! ⁶ I won’t have mercy on people like that. I’ll let them fall into each other’s hands and the hands of their king. They’ll ruin the land, and I won’t protect it.”

Zech 11:4-6

⁷ So I began pasturing the flock that was doomed to slaughter by the ones that trafficked in sheep. I took two staffs; I called one Favor and the other Unity, and I tended the flock with them. ⁸ I fired three worthless shepherds in one month.

I also lost patience with the sheep, and they lost interest in me. ⁹ I told them,

      “I won’t pasture you anymore.

      What’s to die will die;

            what’s to be destroyed will be destroyed.

      The rest will eat one another.”

¹⁰ The staff I called Favor I cut in pieces to demonstrate that I was breaking the covenant I’d made with all the nations. ¹¹ That day, the ones that trafficked in sheep realized Yahveh was acting out a message through me. ¹² I told them, “If you want, pay me; if not, keep it!” So they weighed out 12 oz ^{30 shekels} of silver to pay me. ¹³ Yahveh told me, “Throw them to the potter, that grand value they put on me!” So I threw them to the potter in Yahveh’s Temple. ¹⁴ Then I cut in pieces the staff I called Unity to demonstrate that I was breaking the alliance between Judah and Israel.

Zech 11:7-14

¹⁵ Yahveh told me,

“Again, dress up like a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶ I’m going to show the land a picture of a shepherd that won’t take care of the dying, look for the strays, heal the injured, or feed the healthy. He’ll eat the healthy ones and tear off their hoofs.

                  ¹⁷“Misfortune awaits the worthless shepherd

                  that deserts the flock!

            A sword will cut his arm

                  and poke out his right eye!

            His arm will wither,

                  and his right eye will go blind.”

Zech 11:15-17