Zechariah 11:4–14

Prophecy of the Shepherds

⁴Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, ⁵whose owners slaughter them and ^efeel no guilt; those who sell them ^fsay, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do ^gnot pity them. ⁶For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall ²attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I fed the flock for slaughter, ³in particular ^hthe poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called ⁴Beauty, and the other I called ⁵Bonds; and I fed the flock. ⁸I ⁶dismissed the three shepherds ⁱin one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. ^jLet what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff, ⁷Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was broken on that day. Thus ^kthe ⁸poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it is ⁹agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they ^lweighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^mpotter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. ¹⁴Then I cut in two my other staff, ¹Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.