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The Doomed Flock

¹ Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That ^(C1)fire may devour your ^(C2)cedars.

² Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the magnificent trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the inaccessible forest on the steep mountainside has come down.

³ There is a sound of the shepherds' ^(C1)wail,
For their splendor (grazing land) is ruined;
There is a ^(C2)sound of the young lions' roar,
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

⁴ Thus says the LORD my God, "Pasture the flock doomed for ^(C1)slaughter,⁵ whose buyers slay them and go ^(C1)unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for ^(C2)I have become rich!' And their ^(C3)own shepherds have no pity on them nor protect them from the wolves.⁶ "For I will ^(C1)no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will ^(C2)cause the men to fall, each into the hand of another and into the hands of his foreign king. And the enemy will strike the land, and I will ^(C3)not rescue the people from their hand."

⁷ So I Zechariah ^(C1)pastured the flock doomed for slaughter, truly as the name implies the most ^(C2)miserable of sheep. And I took two shepherd's ^(C3)staffs, the one I called ^(C4)Favor (Grace) and the other I called ^(C5)Union (Bonds); so I pastured the flock.⁸ Then I eliminated the three incompetent, unfit shepherds the civil rulers, the priests, and the prophets in ^(C1)one month, for I was impatient with them, and they also were tired of me and despised me. ^(VR1)9 So I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to ^(C1)die, let it die, and what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let the survivors devour one another's flesh."¹⁰ I took my staff, ^(C1)Favor, and broke it in pieces, ^(C2)breaking the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.¹¹ So the covenant was broken on that day, and thus the most ^(C1)wretched of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD.¹² I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my ^(C1)wages; but if not, do not." So they weighed out ^(F1)(C2)thirty pieces of silver as my wages.^13 (F1)Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the ^(C1)potter as if to the dogs—that magnificent sum at which I am valued by them!" So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. ^(VR1)14 Then I broke my second staff, ^(C1)Union, into pieces to ^(C2)break the brotherhood between Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and Israel (the Northern Kingdom).

¹⁵ The LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a shepherd, but this time of a ^(C1)foolish shepherd. ^(VR1)16 "For behold, I am going to raise up a false shepherd in the land who will ^(C1)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or feed the healthy; but will ^(C2)eat the flesh of the fat ones and tear off their hoofs to consume everything.

¹⁷ "^(C1)Woe (judgment is coming) to the worthless and foolish shepherd
Who deserts the flock!
The ^(C2)sword will strike his arm
And his right eye!
His ^(C3)arm shall be totally withered
And his right eye completely blinded." ^(VR1)