The Book of the Prophet Zechariah 11 The Punishment of the Unrepentant

 The Book of the Prophet Zechariah 11

The Punishment of the Unrepentant

1 Open your gates, Lebanon, that the fire may consume the cedars.

2 Wail, you babblings, for the cedars have fallen, for the choicest ones are destroyed; wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the mighty forest is cut down.

3 The voice of the shepherds howling! For their glory is destroyed; the voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is destroyed!

4 Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock destined for slaughter,

5 Whose owners kill them and are not guilty; and whose sellers say, “Praise the Lord, for I have become rich,” and their shepherds have no pity on them.

6 Surely I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord, but behold, I will deliver the men, each into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king; They will strike the earth, and I will not deliver them from their hand.

7 So I tended the flock destined for slaughter, the poor sheep of the flock. I took two staffs for myself: one I called Gentleness, and the other I called Bonds; and I tended the flock.

8 But in one month I destroyed the three shepherds, for my soul was grieved for them, and their soul also loathed me.

9 Then I said, “I will not tend you anymore; let the one that dies die, and let the one that is destroyed be destroyed, and let the one that remains eat the flesh of its companion.”

10 Then I took my staff, Gentleness, and broke it, to break my covenant that I had made with all these peoples.

11 And it was broken that day, and the poor of the flock who were waiting for me knew that this was the word of the Lord.

12 And I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” And they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter—that handsome price at which they valued me!” So ​​I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

14 Then I broke my second staff, the Bonds, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself the instrument of a foolish shepherd.

16 For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit the perishing, nor seek the straying, nor heal the sick, nor feed the healthy; but he will eat of the fat, and tear off their hooves.

17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! The sword will fall on his arm and on his right eye; his arm will wither completely, and his right eye will be completely blinded.