< Zechariah 11 >

1 Open, O Lebanon, your doors, And fire devours among your cedars.
Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour 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,
Wail, pine-tree, for the cedar is fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the inaccessible forest has fallen.
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 wailing of the shepherds! Their glory is destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions! Blasted is the thick forest of the Jordan.
4 Thus said my God YHWH: “Feed the flock of the slaughter,
The Lord said to me: shepherd the flock destined 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.
whose possessors slaughter them, and hold themselves not guilty! The people who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich! And their own shepherds have no compassion for 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.”
I will no longer have pity on the people of this earth, says the Lord. I will turn neighbor against neighbor, and put everyone under the power of a king, and when the land is devastated I will not rescue 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 shepherded the flock of slaughter for the sheep-merchants. I took two staffs: one I called Mercy and the other I called Union. So I shepherded the sheep.
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.
I set aside three of the shepherds in one month; for I was indignant against them, and they also were displeased at 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.”
I said, I will not shepherd you. What is dead, let it die. What is set aside, let it be set aside. And let those who are left devour one another’s flesh.
10 And I take my staff Pleasantness, and cut it apart, to make void my covenant that I had made with all the peoples:
And I took my staff, Mercy, and broke it, so as to break my covenant which 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.
In that day it was broken, and the sheep-merchants who watched me knew that it was the Lord’s message.
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.
And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wage. If not, don’t.” So they weighed out my wage, 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, Cast it into the treasury – the precious wage that at which I was valued by them! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the treasury.
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 so as to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Jerusalem.
15 And YHWH says to me, “Again take to yourself the instrument of a foolish shepherd.
And the Lord said to me: Take again the implements of a worthless 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 about to appoint a shepherd over the land. Those who are thrust down he will not visit. Those who are scattered he will not seek out. The wounded he will not heal, the sick he will not make whole, but the flesh of the fat he will devour and even their hoofs he will tear.
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!”
Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. May his arm completely wither. And his right eye be blinded.

< Zechariah 11 >