Zechariah 11:1-17 - Israel's Shepherds: Good And Bad

¹ Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars! ² Wail, O juniper, for [the] cedar has fallen, for [the] magnificent [trees] are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down! ³ [Listen to] the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! [Listen to] the roar of [the] young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

⁴ Thus says Yahweh my God: "Shepherd the flock [doomed] to slaughter. ⁵ The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, 'Blessed [be] Yahweh, for I have become rich.' Their own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶ For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land," {declares} Yahweh. "Look, I [am] going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver [anyone] from their hand."

⁷ And I shepherded the flock [doomed] to slaughter, even the afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs, one I called Kindness, and the other I called Unity, and I shepherded the flock. ⁸ And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for {I grew impatient} with them, and {they also became tired of me}. ⁹ So I said, "I will not shepherd you! The [one] dying will die, and the [one] to be destroyed will be destroyed. And the [ones] remaining, let them devour {the flesh of each other}." ¹⁰ And I took my staff Kindness and broke it, to break my covenant that I {had made} with all the peoples. ¹¹ And it was broken on that day. Then the afflicted of the flock, the [ones who were] watching me, knew that it [was] the word of Yahweh. ¹² And I said to them, "If {it seems right to you}, give [me] my wages, but if not, {keep them}." And they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels].

¹³ And Yahweh said to me, "Throw it to the potter," {this noble price} [at] which I was valued by them!" So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and I threw them to the potter [in] the house of Yahweh. ¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff Unity to break the family ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ And Yahweh said to me, "Take again the implements of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ For look, I [am] raising up a shepherd in the land who will not attend to the [ones that are] perishing; he will not seek the young man, he will not heal the [ones that are] crushed and he will not sustain the healthy [ones]; he will devour the flesh of the {fattened ones} and tear apart [even] their hoofs.

¹⁷ "Woe, my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! [May] a sword [fall] on his arm and on {his right eye}! May his arm wither completely and {his right eye} be utterly blinded!"