Zechariah 11:1-17
11 “Open up your doors, O Lebʹa·non,+ that a fire may devour among your cedars.+
2 Howl, O juniper tree, for the cedar has fallen; because the majestic ones themselves have been despoiled!+ Howl, YOU massive trees of Baʹshan, for the impenetrable* forest has come down!+
3 Listen! The howling of shepherds,+ for their majesty has been despoiled.+ Listen! The roaring of maned young lions, for the proud [thickets]* along the Jordan have been despoiled.+
4 “This is what Jehovah my God* has said, ‘Shepherd the flock [meant] for the killing,+
5 the buyers of which proceed to kill+ [them] although they are not held guilty.+ And those who are selling+ them say: “May Jehovah be blessed, while I shall gain riches.”+ And their own shepherds do not show any compassion upon them.’+
6 “‘For I shall show compassion no more upon the inhabitants of the land,’+ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘So here I am causing mankind* to find themselves, each one in the hand of his companion+ and in the hand of his king;+ and they will certainly crush to pieces the land, and I shall do no delivering out of their hand.’”+
7 And I proceeded to shepherd the flock+ [meant] for the killing,+ in YOUR behalf, O afflicted ones of the flock.*+ So I took for myself two staffs.+ The one I called Pleasantness,+ and the other I called Union,*+ and I went shepherding the flock.
8 And I finally effaced three shepherds in one lunar month,+ as my soul gradually became impatient with them,+ and also their own soul felt a loathing toward me.
9 At length I said: “I shall not keep shepherding YOU.*+ The one that is dying, let her die. And the one that is being effaced, let her be effaced.+ And as for the ones left remaining, let them devour, each one the flesh of her companion.”+
10 So I took my staff Pleasantness+ and cut it to pieces,+ in order to break my covenant that I had concluded with all the peoples.+
11 And it came to be broken in that day, and the afflicted ones of the flock*+ who were watching+ me got to know in this way that it was the word of Jehovah.
12 Then I said to them:* “If it is good in YOUR eyes,+ give [me] my wages; but if not, refrain.” And they proceeded to pay* my wages, thirty pieces of silver.+
13 At that, Jehovah said to me: “Throw it to the treasury*+—the majestic value with which I have been valued from their standpoint.”+ Accordingly I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the treasury at the house of Jehovah.+
14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff, the Union,+ in order to break the brotherhood+ between Judah and Israel.+
15 And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Take yet for yourself the implements of a useless shepherd.+
16 For here I am letting a shepherd rise up in the land.+ To the [sheep]* being effaced he will give no attention.+ The young one he will not seek, and the broken [sheep] he will not heal.+ The one stationing herself* he will not supply [with food], and the flesh of the fat one he will eat,+ and the hoofs of the [sheep]* he will tear off.+
17 Woe to my valueless shepherd,+ who is leaving the flock!+ A sword will be upon his arm and upon his right eye. His own arm will without fail dry up,+ and his own right eye will without fail grow dim.”
Footnotes
^ Or, “fortified; inaccessible.” Mmargin, “interdicted.”
^ “Proud [thickets].” Or, “high [trees].” Lit., “pride.”
^ “Jehovah my God,” M(Heb., Yehwahʹ ʼElo·haiʹ)TSyVg; Gr., Kyʹri·os pan·to·kraʹtor, “Jehovah Almighty.”
^ Or, “earthling man.” Heb., ha·ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ According to M; by a regrouping and a change in vowel pointing, “in behalf of the tradesmen of the flock.”
^ Lit., “Binders.” Heb., Cho·velimʹ; that which results in a union of things.
^ “You,” masc. pl.
^ “Them,” masc.
^ Lit., “weigh out.”
^ “Treasury,” by a correction; M, “founder,” or, “potter”; LXX, “smelting furnace”; Vg, “statuary.”
^ Lit., “of them,” fem.
^ “The one made sick,” by a correction; by a different correction, “The hungry one.”
^ Lit., “To the ones,” fem., referring to symbolic sheep.
