Zechariah 11

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

Open thy doores, O Lebanon, and the fire shall deuoure thy cedars.

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

Houle, firre trees: for the cedar is fallen, because all the mightie are destroyed: houle ye, O okes of Bashan, for ye defesed forest is cut downe.

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 the voyce of the houling of the shepherdes: for their glorie is destroyed: the voyce of ye roaring of lyons whelpes: for the pride of Iorden is destroyed.

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

Thus sayeth the Lord my God, Feede the sheepe 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.

They that possesse them, slay them and sinne not: and they that sell them, say, Blessed be the Lord: for I am riche, and their owne shepherds spare 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.

Surely I wil no more spare those that dwell in the land, sayth the Lord: but loe, I will deliuer the men euery one into his neighbours hand, and into the hand of his King: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hands I wil not deliuer 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.

For I fed the sheepe of slaughter, euen the poore of the flocke, and I tooke vnto me two staues: the one I called Beautie, and the other I called Bandes, and I fed the sheepe.

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 shepherdes also I cut off in one moneth, and my soule lothed them, and their soule 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 feede you: that that dyeth, let it dye: and that that perisheth, let it perish: and let the remnant eate, euery one the flesh of his neighbour.

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 tooke my staffe, euen Beautie, and brake it, that I might disanull my couenant, which I had made with all 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 poore of the sheepe that waited vpon me, knew that it was the worde 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 vnto them, If ye thinke it good, giue me my wages: and if no, leaue off: so they weighed for my wages thirtie pieces of siluer.

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 vnto me, Cast it vnto the potter: a goodly price, that I was valued at of them. And I tooke the thirtie pieces of siluer, 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 brake I mine other staffe, euen the Bandes, that I might dissolue the brotherhood betweene Iudah and Israel.

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

And the Lord said vnto me, Take to thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepheard.

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 loe, I will rayse vp a shepheard in the land, which shall not looke for the thing, that is lost, nor seeke the tender lambes, nor heale that that is hurt, nor feede that that standeth vp: but he shall eate the flesh of the fat, and teare their clawes 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.

O idole shepheard that leaueth the flocke: the sword shalbe vpon his arme, and vpon his right eye. His arme shall be cleane dryed vp, and his right eye shall be vtterly darkened.