Zechariah 11

The Broken Covenant

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may consume your cedars.

2 Wail, cypress, because the cedar has fallen, the majestic trees are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan, because the thick forest has been cut down.

3 Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, because their rich pastures are destroyed. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, because the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

Two Shepherds

4 This is what the LORD my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.

5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the LORD, I have become rich.’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.

6 For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” declares the LORD. “I will hand everyone over to their neighbor and to their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”

7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock.

8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds. The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them.

9 Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.”

10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, canceling the covenant I had made with all the nations.

11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD.

12 I told them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”, the handsome price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the LORD.

14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

The Worthless Shepherd

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the lost, seek the young, heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.

17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock. May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded.”