Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad

11 Open your gates, Lebanon,

and fire will consume your cedars. d

2 Wail, cypress, e for the cedar has fallen;

the glorious trees are destroyed!

Wail, oaks of Bashan, f

for the stately forest has fallen!

3 Listen to the wail g of the shepherds, h

for their glory is destroyed. i

Listen to the roar of young lions, j

for the thickets of the Jordan k are l destroyed.

4 * Yahweh my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. m Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.” n

7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock. o I took two staffs, calling one Favor p and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is going astray go astray; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” 10 Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 It was annulled on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock q who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, 30 pieces of silver. r

13 “Throw it to the potter,” s the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter. t u 14 Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 The Lord also said to me: “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are going astray, and he will not seek the lost v or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, w but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep x and tear off their hooves.

17 Woe to the worthless shepherd

who deserts the flock! y

May a sword strike z his arm

and his right eye!

May his arm wither away

and his right eye go completely blind!”