Zechariah 11

Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad

11Open your gates, Lebanon,

and fire will consume your cedars. ^d

²Wail, cypress, ^efor the cedar has fallen;

the glorious trees are destroyed!

Wail, oaks of Bashan, ^f

for the stately forest has fallen!

³Listen to the wail ^gof the shepherds, ^h

for their glory is destroyed. ⁱ

Listen to the roar of young lions, ^j

for the thickets of the Jordan ^kare ^ldestroyed.

⁴Yahweh my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. ⁵Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. ^mThose who sell them say: Praise 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 deliver it from them.” ⁿ

⁷So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock. ^oI took two staffs, calling one Favor ^pand 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 going astray go astray; 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 afflicted of the flock ^qwho 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, 30 pieces of silver. ^r

¹³“Throw it to the potter,” ^sthe 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. ^tu14Then 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 going astray, and he will not seek the lost ^vor heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy, ^wbut he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep ^xand tear off their hooves.

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd

who deserts the flock! ^y

May a sword strike ^zhis arm

and his right eye!

May his arm wither away

and his right eye go completely blind!”