Zechariah 11

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

2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O you oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled. A voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan (Yarden) is spoiled.

4 Thus saith יהוה my God (Elohim): “Feed the flock of the slaughter;

5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, ‘Blessed be יהוה, for I am rich’; and their own shepherds pity them not.

6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” saith יהוה. “But, behold, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”

7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called ‘Pleasantness (Noam)’, and the other I called ‘Bonds (Chovalim)’; and I fed the flock.

8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

9 Then said I, “I will not feed you; whichever is dying, let it dies, whichever is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.”

10 And I took my staff, Pleasantness (Noam), and cut it in two, that I might break My covenant which I had made with all the people.

11 And it was broken in that day; and so the poor of the flock that waited upon Me knew that it was the word of יהוה.

12 And I said unto them, “If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.” So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

13 And יהוה said unto me, “Cast it unto the potter”; a goodly price that I was prised at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of יהוה.

14 Then I cut in two mine other staff, Bonds (Chovalim), that I might break the brotherhood between Judah (Yehudah) and Yisrael.

15 And יהוה said unto me, “Take unto you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

16 For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

17 Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.