Zechariah Chapter 11
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 Howl, juniper. For the cedar has fallen. Because the majestic trees are devastated. Howl, O oaks of Bashan. For the inaccessible forest has come down.
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds. For their glory is destroyed. There is a voice of the roaring of young lions. For the pride of Jordan is destroyed.
4 For thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,
5 those buying them kill them, and hold themselves not guilty. And those who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich. And their shepherds do not pity them.
6 For I will never again pity the people of the land says the Lord. But I will make the men come out. Each one into his neighbor's hand and into his king's hand. They will strike the land and I will not deliver out of their hand.
7 I fed the flock of slaughter, even the poor of the flock. And I took two staffs for myself. The one I called Kindness, and the other I called Union. And I fed the flock.
8 I also cut off three shepherds in one month. And my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also despised me.
9 I said, I will not feed you. What dies, let it die. And what is to be cut off, let it be cut off. And those left, let them eat, each woman her neighbor's flesh.
10 I took my staff Kindness, and broke it apart, to break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
11 It was broken in that day. And so the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the Word of the Lord.
12 I said to them, If it is good, give my price. And if not, let it go. So they weighed my price 30 pieces of silver.
13 The Lord said to me, Throw it to the potter, the magnificent price at which I was valued by them. And I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke my other staff Union apart, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord said to me, Take yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
16 For I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those going to ruin. Nor will he seek the young nor heal what is broken nor will he feed what stands. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear off their hoofs.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock. The sword will be on his arm and on his right eye. His arm will be completely dried up and his right eye will be utterly darkened.