Zechariah 11

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

Open your doors, O Libanus, and let the fire devour your cedars.

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

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.

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.

[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.

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

Thus says the Lord Almighty, Feed the sheep of the 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.

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.

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.

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 neighbour, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not rescue out of their hand.

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.

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.

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 I will cut off three shepherds in one month; and my soul shall grieve over them, for their souls cried out against 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.

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 neighbour.

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

And I will take my beautiful staff, and cast it away, that I may break my covenant which I made with all the people.

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

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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

And I cast away [my] second rod, [even] Line, that I might break the possession between Juda and Israel.

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

And the Lord said to me, Take yet to you shepherd's implements belonging to an unskillful 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 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].

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.

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.