Zechariah 11
BSB
The Doomed Flock
1Open your doors, O Lebanon,
that the fire may consume your cedars!
2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen;
the majestic trees are ruined!
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
for the dense forest has been cut down!
3Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,
for their glory is in ruins.
Listen to the roaring of the young lions,
for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.
4This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, 5whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.
6For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
7So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. 8And in one month I dismissed three shepherds.
My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me. 9Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”
Thirty Pieces of Silver
(Matthew 27:3–10)
10Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
13And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent 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.
14Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15And the LORD said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.
17Woe to the worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May a sword strike his arm
and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered
and his right eye utterly blinded!”
Introduction
Zechariah 11
God's prophet, who, in the chapters before, was an ambassador sent to promise peace, is here a herald sent to declare war. The Jewish nation shall recover its prosperity, and shall flourish for some time and become considerable; it shall be very happy, at length, in the coming of the long-expected Messiah, in the preaching of his gospel, and in the setting up of his standard there. But, when thereby the chosen remnant among them are effectually called in and united to Christ, the body of the nation, persisting in unbelief, shall be utterly abandoned and given up to ruin, for rejecting Christ; and it is this that is foretold here in this chapter - the Jews rejecting Christ, which was their measure-filling sin, and the wrath which for that sin came upon them to the uttermost. Here is, I. A prediction of the destruction itself that should come upon the Jewish nation (Zac 11:1-3). II. The putting of it into the hands of the Messiah. 1. He is charged with the custody of that flock (Zac 11:4-6). 2. He undertakes it, and bears rule in it (Zac 11:7, Zac 11:8). 3. Finding it perverse, he gives it up (Zac 11:9), breaks his shepherd's staff (Zac 11:10, Zac 11:11), resents the indignities done him and the contempt put upon him (Zac 11:12, Zac 11:13), and then breaks his other staff (Zac 11:14). 4. He turns them over into the hands of foolish shepherds, who, instead of preventing, shall complete their ruin, and both the blind leaders and the blind followers shall fall together into the ditch (Zac 11:15-17). This is foretold to the poor of the flock before it comes to pass, that, when it does come to pass, they may not be offended.
Cross-references: Zech 11:1 · Zech 11:4 · Zech 11:7 · Zech 11:8 · Zech 11:9 · Zech 11:10 · Zech 11:11 · Zech 11:12 · Zech 11:13 · Zech 11:14 · Zech 11:15