Zacharias 11
1 Open your doors, O Libanus, and let the fire devour your cedars.
Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn up your cedars!
2 Let the pine howl, because the cedar has fallen; for the mighty men have been greatly afflicted: howl, you oaks of the land of Basan; for the thickly planted forest has been torn down.
Weep, juniper, because the cedar has fallen, the majestic trees are ruined! Weep, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been cut down!
3 [There is] a voice of the shepherds mourning; for their greatness is brought low: a voice of roaring lions; for the pride of Jordan is brought down.
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.
4 Thus says the Lord Almighty, Feed the sheep of the slaughter;
This is what the Lord my God says: Become a shepherd of the flock marked for slaughter.
5 which their possessors have slain, and have not repented: and they that sold them said, Blessed be the Lord; for we have become rich: and their shepherds have suffered no sorrow for them.
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.
6 Therefore I will no longer have mercy upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord: but, behold, I will deliver up the men every one into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not rescue out of their hand.
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.
7 And I will tend the flock of slaughter in the land of Chanaan: and I will take for myself two rods; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Line; and I will tend the flock.
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.
8 And I will cut off three shepherds in one month; and my soul shall grieve over them, for their souls cried out against me.
In one month I dismissed three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also hated me.
9 And I said, I will not tend you: that which dies, let it die; and that which falls off, let it fall off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of his neighbor.
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!”
10 And I will take my beautiful staff, and cast it away, that I may break my covenant which I made with all the people.
Then I took my staff called Grace and broke it, breaking the agreement I had made with all the peoples.
11 And it shall be broken in that day; and the Chananites, the sheep that are kept for me, shall know that it is the word of the Lord.
It was broken on that day, and the sheep merchants who were watching me knew that it was a message from the Lord.
12 And I will say to them, If it be good in your eyes, give [me] my price, or refuse it. And they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
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.
13 And the Lord said to me, Drop them into the furnace, and I will see if it is good [metal], as I was proved for their sakes. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the furnace in the house of the Lord.
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.
14 And I cast away [my] second rod, [even] Line, that I might break the possession between Juda and Israel.
Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family union between Judah and Israel.
15 And the Lord said to me, Take yet to you shepherd's implements belonging to an unskillful shepherd.
The Lord told me, Get the things you use as a shepherd, a useless shepherd.
16 For, behold, I [will] raise up a shepherd against the land: he shall not visit that which is perishing, and he shall not seek that which is scattered, and he shall not heal that which is bruised, nor guide that which is whole: but he shall devour the flesh of the choice [ones], and shall dislocate the joints [of their necks].
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.
17 Alas for the vain shepherds that have forsaken the sheep! the sword [shall be] upon the arms of such a one, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be completely withered, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
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.
