Zechariah 11

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars.

Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.

2 Wail, pine-tree, for the cedar is fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the inaccessible forest has fallen.

Wail, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: wail, O all of you oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage has come down.

3 Listen to the wailing of the shepherds! Their glory is destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions! Blasted is the thick forest of the Jordan.

There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

4 The Lord said to me: shepherd the flock destined for slaughter,

Thus says the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;

5 whose possessors slaughter them, and hold themselves not guilty! The people who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich! And their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

6 I will no longer have pity on the people of this earth, says the Lord. I will turn neighbour against neighbour, and put everyone under the power of a king, and when the land is devastated I will not rescue them.

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

7 So I shepherded the flock of slaughter for the sheep-merchants. I took two staffs: one I called Mercy and the other I called Union. So I shepherded the sheep.

And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

8 I set aside three of the shepherds in one month; for I was indignant against them, and they also were displeased at me.

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

9 I said, I will not shepherd you. What is dead, let it die. What is set aside, let it be set aside. And let those who are left devour one another’s flesh.

Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dies, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.

10 And I took my staff, Mercy, and broke it, so as to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

11 In that day it was broken, and the sheep-merchants who watched me knew that it was the Lord’s message.

And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

12 And I said to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wage. If not, don’t.’ So they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver.

And I said unto them, If all of you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the Lord said to me, Cast it into the treasury – the precious wage that at which I was valued by them! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the treasury.

And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was appraised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

14 Then I broke my second staff called Union so as to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Jerusalem.

Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And the Lord said to me: Take again the implements of a worthless shepherd.

And the LORD said unto me, Take unto you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

16 For I am about to appoint a shepherd over the land. Those who are thrust down he will not visit. Those who are scattered he will not seek out. The wounded he will not heal, the sick he will not make whole, but the flesh of the fat he will devour and even their hoofs he will tear.

For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stands still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

17 Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. May his arm completely wither. And his right eye be blinded.

Woe to the idol shepherd that left the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.