Zechariah
Chapter 11
1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so the fire can burn your cedar trees.
2 Cry out, pine tree, because the cedar has fallen; the powerful have been destroyed. Cry out, you oaks of Bashan, because the thick forest has been cut down.
3 Shepherds cry out because their beauty is ruined; young lions roar because the lush Jordan Valley is ruined.
4 God, my God, says: Take care of the sheep that are being killed.
5 The people who own them kill them and think they’ve done nothing wrong. Those who sell them say, “Praise God, I’m rich.” And their own shepherds don’t care about them.
6 I will not feel sorry for the people of the land anymore, says God. I will let everyone be captured by their neighbors and their ruler. They will attack the land, and I won’t save them from it.
7 I will give food to the doomed sheep, including you, the needy ones. I got myself two sticks; I named one Beauty and the other Unity, and I took care of the sheep.
8 I also got rid of three shepherds in one month; I grew tired of them, and they strongly disliked me too.
9 I said, I won’t take care of you anymore: let what is dying die, and what is to be cut off be cut off; and let the remaining ones eat each other’s flesh.
10 I took my stick, named Beauty, and broke it to end the agreement I had with all the people.
11 It broke that day, and the needy sheep who followed me realized it was God’s message.
12 I told them, “If you agree, pay me; if not, don’t.” So they gave me thirty silver coins as my payment.
13 God told me, “Throw it to the potter—the splendid price they valued me at.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at God’s house.
14 Then I cut my other staff named Bands to break the unity between Judah and Israel.
15 God told me to take the tools of a foolish shepherd.
16 Look, I will bring up a shepherd in the land who won’t care for the lost, or look for the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but he will eat the meat of the fat ones and tear off their hooves.
17 Pity the bad shepherd who abandons his sheep! He will be hurt in his arm and right eye: his arm will wither, and his right eye will become completely blind.