Zechariah 11

ISRAEL’S SHEPHERDS: GOOD AND BAD

11Open your gates, Lebanon,

and fire will consume your cedars.^o

²Wail, cypress,^p for the cedar has fallen;

the glorious trees are destroyed!

Wail, oaks of Bashan,^q

for the stately forest has fallen!

³Listen to the wail^r of the shepherds,^s

for their glory is destroyed.

Listen to the roar of young lions,^t

for the thickets of the Jordan^u are^B destroyed.

⁴The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. ⁵Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.^v Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶Indeed, 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 rescue it from their hand.”^w

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

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

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

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd

who deserts the flock!^b

May a sword strike^F his arm

and his right eye!

May his arm wither away

and his right eye go completely blind!”