The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

11 Open your doors, kO Lebanon,

that the fire may devour your cedars!

2  Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

for the glorious trees are ruined!

Wail, koaks of Bashan,

for the thick forest has been felled!

3  The sound of lthe wail of lthe shepherds,

for their glory is ruined!

The sound of the roar of mthe lions,

nfor the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

4 Thus said the Lord my God: o“Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 pThose who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, qI have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For rI will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

7 sSo I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named uFavor, the other I named vUnion. sAnd I tended the sheep. 8 In one month wI destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. xWhat is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.” 10 And I took ymy staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages zthirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—athe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the zthirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. 14 Then I broke bmy second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of ca foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd dwho does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but edevours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

17  f“Woe to my worthless shepherd,

gwho deserts the flock!

May the sword strike his arm

and hhis right eye!

Let his arm be wholly withered,

his right eye utterly blinded!”

The Lord Will Give Salvation

12 iThe oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, jwho stretched out the heavens and kfounded the earth and jformed the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem la cup of staggering to mall the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem nwill also be against Judah. 3 oOn that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. pAll who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And mall the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 oOn that day, declares the Lord, qI will strike every horse rwith panic, and its rider rwith madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples rwith blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

6 o“On that day I will make the clans of Judah slike a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And tthey shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while uJerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.

7 “And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 oOn that day vthe Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that wthe feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, xlike the angel of the Lord, going before them. 9 oAnd on that day yI will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Him Whom They Have Pierced

10 “And zI will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and zpleas for mercy, so that, awhen they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, bthey shall mourn for him, cas one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 oOn that day dthe mourning in Jerusalem will be as great eas the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, feach family1 by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of gNathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of hthe Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

13 i“On that day there shall be ja fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

Idolatry Cut Off

2 “And ion that day, declares the Lord of hosts, kI will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that lthey shall be remembered no more. And also mI will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. 3 And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, n‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.

4 “On that day oevery prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, 5 but he will say, p‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’1 6 And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’2 he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Struck

7  “Awake, O sword, against qmy shepherd,

against the man who stands next to me,”

declares the Lord of hosts.

r“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;

I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8  In the whole land, declares the Lord,

two thirds shall be cut off and perish,

sand one third shall be left alive.

9  And tI will put this third into the fire,

and refine them as one refines silver,

and test them as gold is tested.

uThey will call upon my name,

and vI will answer them.

wI will say, ‘They are my people’;

and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”