Zechariah 11

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars.

Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars!

2 Wail, pine-tree, for the cedar is fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the inaccessible forest has fallen.

Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees are ruined! Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been cut down!

3 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.

Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

4 The Lord said to me: shepherd the flock destined for slaughter,

This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,

5 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.

whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.

6 I will no longer have pity on the people of this earth, says the Lord. I will turn neighbour against neighbour, and put everyone under the power of a king, and when the land is devastated I will not rescue them.

For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”

7 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.

So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.

8 I set aside three of the shepherds in one month; for I was indignant against them, and they also were displeased at me.

And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.

9 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.

Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”

10 And I took my staff, Mercy, and broke it, so as to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.

11 In that day it was broken, and the sheep-merchants who watched me knew that it was the Lord’s message.

It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

12 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.

Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

13 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.

And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

14 Then I broke my second staff called Union so as to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Jerusalem.

Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And the Lord said to me: Take again the implements of a worthless shepherd.

And the LORD said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

16 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.

For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.

17 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.

Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”