Zechariah 11
1 Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, And fire doth devour among thy cedars.
Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars.
2 Howl, O fir, for fallen hath the cedar, For their honourable ones were destroyed, Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For come down hath the fenced forest,
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 destroyed was their robe of honour, A voice of the roaring of young lions! For destroyed was the excellency of Jordan.
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 Jehovah my God: '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] Jehovah, 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 have pity no more on inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah, And lo, I am causing man to come forth, Each into the hand of his neighbour, 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, ye afflicted of the flock; and I take to me two staves, the one I have called Pleasantness, and the other I have called 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 hath 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 neighbour.'
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 asunder, 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 know well do the afflicted of the flock who are observing me, that it [is] a word of Jehovah.
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 unto them: 'If good in your eyes, give my hire, and if not, forbear;' and they weigh out my hire — thirty silverlings.
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 Jehovah saith unto me, 'Cast it unto the potter;' the goodly price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty silverlings, and cast them [to] the house of Jehovah, unto 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 asunder 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 Jehovah saith unto me, 'Again take to thee the instrument of a foolish shepherd.
And the Lord said to me: Take again the implements of a worthless shepherd.
16 For lo, I am raising up a shepherd in the land, The cut off he doth not inspect, The shaken off he doth not seek, And the broken he doth not heal, The standing he doth not sustain, And the flesh of the fat he doth eat, And their hoofs he doth break 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.
