Zechariah 11
1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn up your cedars!
Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 Weep, juniper, because the cedar has fallen, the majestic trees are ruined! Weep, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been cut down!
Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O you oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
3 Listen to the howls of the shepherds, for their pastureland is destroyed. Listen to the roars of the young lions, for their Jordan habitat is ruined.
There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
4 This is what the Lord my God says: Become a shepherd of the flock marked for slaughter.
Thus says the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
5 Those who buy them kill them and don't feel guilty; those who sell them say, “Praise the Lord! Now I'm rich!” Even their shepherds don't care about them.
Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no longer care about the people of the Land, declares the Lord. I am going to make them victims of each other, and of the king. They will devastate the earth and I won't help anyone get away from them.
For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, see, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
7 So I became a shepherd of the flock marked for slaughter by the sheep merchants. Then I took two staffs, one named Grace, the other named Union, and I shepherded the flock.
And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took to me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8 In one month I dismissed three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also hated me.
Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then I said, “I will not be your shepherd. If the sheep die, they die. Let those that are to perish, perish. Let those who are left eat each other!”
Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dies, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
10 Then I took my staff called Grace and broke it, breaking the agreement I had made with all the peoples.
And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
11 It was broken on that day, and the sheep merchants who were watching me knew that it was a message from the Lord.
And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited on me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 I told them, “If you want to pay me my wages, then do so. If not, then don't.” So they paid me my wages—thirty pieces of silver.
And I said to them, If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw the money to the treasury,” this measly sum they thought I was worth! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the treasury of the Lord's Temple.
And the LORD said to me, Cast it to the potter: a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family union between Judah and Israel.
Then I cut asunder my other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord told me, Get the things you use as a shepherd, a useless shepherd.
And the LORD said to me, Take to you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
16 For I am placing a shepherd in charge of the land who won't care for those who are dying, or look for the lost, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy. Instead he will eat the meat from the fattest sheep. He even tears their hooves off.
For, see, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stands still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.
17 What disaster is coming to this useless shepherd who abandons the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will wither away and his right eye will become completely blind.
Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock! the sword shall be on his arm, and on his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
