Zechariah 11

1 Open, O Lebanon, your doors, And fire devours among your cedars.

Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn up your cedars!

2 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,

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 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.

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 said my God YHWH: “Feed the flock of the slaughter,

This is what the Lord my God says: Become a shepherd of the flock marked for slaughter.

5 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.

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 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.”

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 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.

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 cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul is grieved with them, and also their soul has abhorred me.

In one month I dismissed three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also hated me.

9 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.”

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 take my staff Pleasantness, and cut it apart, to make void my covenant that I had made with all the peoples:

Then I took my staff called Grace and broke it, breaking the agreement I had made with all the peoples.

11 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 cut apart my second staff, Bands, To break the unity between Judah and Israel.

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

15 And YHWH says to me, “Again take to yourself the instrument of a foolish shepherd.

The Lord told me, Get the things you use as a shepherd, a useless shepherd.

16 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.

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 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!”

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.