The Doomed Flock

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,

That a afire may feed on your bcedars.

2 Wail, O 1cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;

Wail, O oaks of Bashan,

For the 2impenetrable forest has come down.

3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ awail,

For their glory is ruined;

There is a bsound of the young lions’ roar,

For the 1pride of the Jordan is ruined.

4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to aslaughter.

5 “Those who buy them slay them and 1go aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for bI have become rich!’ And their cown shepherds have no pity on them.

6 “For I will ano longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will bcause the men to 1fall, each into another’s 2power and into the 2power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will cnot deliver them from their 2power.”

7 So I apastured the flock doomed to slaughter, 1hence the bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two cstaffs: the one I called 2dFavor and the other I called 3eUnion; so I pastured the flock.

8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also 1was weary of me.

9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to adie, 1let it die, and what is to be annihilated, 2let it be annihilated; and 3let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”

10 I took my staff 1aFavor and cut it in pieces, to 2bbreak my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

11 So it was 1broken on that day, and 2thus the aafflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord.

12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my awages; but if not, 1never mind!” So they weighed out bthirty shekels of silver as my wages.

13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the apotter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff 1aUnion, to bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a 1afoolish shepherd.

16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will anot care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

17 “aWoe to the worthless shepherd

Who leaves the flock!

A bsword will be on his arm

And on his right eye!

His carm will be totally withered

And his right eye will be 1blind.”