Zechariah 11
11
1Open your doors, O Lebanon,
that the fire may devour your cedars!
2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
for the thick forest has been felled!
3Hark, the wail of the shepherds,
for their glory is despoiled!
Hark, the roar of the lions,
for the jungle of the Jordan is laid waste!
4Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich’; and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord. Lo, I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his shepherd, and each into the hand of his king; and they shall crush the earth, and I will deliver none from their hand.”
7So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep. And I took two staffs; one I named Grace, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. 8In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another.” 10And I took my staff Grace, and I broke it, annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was annulled on that day, and the traffickers in the sheep, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12#Mt 26.15; 27.9. Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. 13Then the Lord said to me, “Cast it into the treasury”#11.13 Syr: Heb to the potter—the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury#11.13 Syr: Heb to the potter in the house of the Lord. 14Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. 16For lo, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,#11.16 Syr Compare Gk Vg: Heb the youth or heal the maimed, or nourish the sound, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
17Woe to my worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword smite his arm
and his right eye!
Let his arm be wholly withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!”
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Zechariah 11: RSV
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Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America