< Zechariah 11 >

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn up your cedars!
Open, O Lebanon, your doors, And fire devours among 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, O fir, for the cedar has fallen, For their majestic ones were destroyed, Howl, you oaks of Bashan, For the enclosed forest has 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.
A voice of the howling of the shepherds! For their robe of honor was destroyed, A voice of the roaring of young lions! For the excellence of Jordan was destroyed.
4 This is what the Lord my God says: Become a shepherd of the flock marked for slaughter.
Thus said my God YHWH: “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 buyers slay them, and are not guilty, And their sellers say, Blessed [is] YHWH, And I am rich, And their shepherds have no pity on them.
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 no longer have pity on inhabitants of the land, A declaration of YHWH, And behold, I am causing man to come forth, Each into the hand of his neighbor, And into the hand of his king, And they have beaten down the land, And I do not deliver out of their hand.”
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 feed the flock of slaughter, even you, you afflicted of the flock; and I take two staffs to myself; I have called one Pleasantness, and I have called the other Bands, and I feed the flock.
8 In one month I dismissed three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also hated me.
And I cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul is grieved with them, and also their soul has 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!”
And I say, “I do not feed you, the dying, let die; and the cut off, let be cut off; and the remaining ones, let each eat the flesh of its neighbor.”
10 Then I took my staff called Grace and broke it, breaking the agreement I had made with all the peoples.
And I take my staff Pleasantness, and cut it apart, to make void my covenant that I had made with all the peoples:
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 is broken in that day, and the afflicted of the flock who are observing me know well, that it [is] a word of YHWH.
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 say to them: “If good in your eyes, give my hire, and if not, refrain”; and they weigh out my hire—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 YHWH says to me, “Cast it to the potter”; the good price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them [into] the house of YHWH, to the potter.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family union between Judah and Israel.
And I cut apart my second staff, Bands, To break the unity between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord told me, Get the things you use as a shepherd, a useless shepherd.
And YHWH says to me, “Again take to yourself the instrument 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 behold, I am raising up a shepherd in the land, The cut off he does not inspect, The shaken off he does not seek, And the broken he does not heal, The standing he does not sustain, And the flesh of the fat he eats, And their hooves he breaks off.
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 worthless shepherd, forsaking the flock, A sword [is] on his arm, and on his right eye, His arm is utterly dried up, And his right eye is very dim!”

< Zechariah 11 >