Zechariah 11

¹Open your doors , O Lebanon , that the fire may devour your cedars !

²Wail , O cypress , for the cedar has fallen , for the glorious trees are ruined ! Wail , oaks of Bashan , for the thick forest has been felled !

³The sound of the wail of the shepherds , for their glory is ruined ! The sound of the roar of the lions , for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined !

⁴Thus said the Lord my God : Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter .

⁵Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished , and those who sell them say , Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich , and their own shepherds have no pity on them.

⁶For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land , declares the Lord. Behold , I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor , and each into the hand of his king , and they shall crush the land , and I will deliver none from their hand .

⁷So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders . And I took two staffs , one I named Favor , the other I named Union . And I tended the sheep .

⁸In one month I destroyed the three shepherds . But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.

⁹So I said , I will not be your shepherd . What is to die , let it die . What is to be destroyed , let it be destroyed . And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another .

¹⁰And I took my staff Favor , and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples .

¹¹So it was annulled on that day , and the sheep traders , who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.

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

¹³Then the Lord said to me, Throw it to the potter — the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter .

¹⁴Then I broke my second staff Union , annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel .

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd .

¹⁶For behold , I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed , or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy , but devours the flesh of the fat ones , tearing off even their hoofs .

¹⁷Woe to my worthless shepherd , who deserts the flock ! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye ! Let his arm be wholly withered , his right eye utterly blinded !