Zechariah 11

The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

1 Open your doors, aO Lebanon,
that the fire may devour your cedars!
2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, boaks of Bashan,
for the thick forest has been felled!
3The sound of cthe wail of dthe shepherds,
for their glory is ruined!
The sound of the roar of ethe lions,
ffor the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4Thus said the Lord my God: g“Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 hThose who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, iI have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6For jI will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

7 kSo I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named lFavor, the other I named mUnion. nAnd I tended the sheep. 8In one month oI destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. pWhat is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.” 10And I took qmy staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages rthirty pieces of silver. 13Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”— sthe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the tthirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. 14Then I broke umy second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of va foolish shepherd. 16For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd wwho does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but xdevours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

17 yWoe to my worthless shepherd,
zwho deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
and aahis right eye!
Let his arm be wholly withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!”
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