Zechariah
11
- Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire
may devour your cedars!
- Wail, O pine tree, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan; the dense forest has been
cut down!
- Listen to the wail of the shepherds; their
rich pastures are destroyed! Listen to the roar of the lions; the lush thicket
of the Jordan is ruined!
- This is what the LORD my God says: "Pasture
the flock marked for slaughter.
- Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished.
Those who sell them say, 'Praise the LORD, I am rich!' Their own shepherds
do not spare them.
- For I will no longer have pity on the people
of the land," declares the LORD. "I will hand everyone over to his
neighbor and his king. They will oppress the land, and I will not rescue them
from their hands."
- So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter,
particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called
one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.
- In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them
- and said, "I will not be your shepherd.
Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one
another's flesh."
- Then I took my staff called Favor and broke
it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.
- It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted
of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD.
- I told them, "If you think it best,
give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of
silver.
- And the LORD said to me, "Throw it
to the potter"--the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took
the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the
potter.
- Then I broke my second staff called Union,
breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
- Then the LORD said to me, "Take again
the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
- For I am going to raise up a shepherd over
the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured,
or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off
their hoofs.
- "Woe to the worthless shepherd, who
deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his
arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!"
Jerusalem's Enemies to Be Destroyed
An Oracle
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