Zechariah 11 Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. Wail, you cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, y’all oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down. A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed—a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

The Two Shepherds

YHWH my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be YHWH, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says YHWH; “but instead I will deliver everyone into their neighbor’s hand and into the hand of the king. They will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand .”

So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor” and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then I said, “I will not feed y’all. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be cut off, let it be cut off, and let the rest eat each other’s flesh.” I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the word of YHWH. I said to them, “If it looks good in y’all’s eyes, then y’all must give me my wages. But if not, then y’all should stop.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. YHWH said to me, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of YHWH. Then I cut apart my other staff, Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

YHWH said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For indeed, I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be withered-withered, and his right eye will be blinded-blinded!”