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Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad

⁴ The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. ⁵ Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.^(C1) Those who sell them say: Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶ Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”^(C1)

⁷ So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock.^(F1) I took two staffs, calling one Favor^(C1) and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. ⁸ In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is perishing perish; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰ Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock^(F1) who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.^(C1)

¹³ “Throw it to the potter,”^(F1) the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.^{(F2)(C1) 14} Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ The Lord also said to me: “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, and he will not seek the lost^(F1) or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy,^(F2) but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep^(C1) and tear off their hooves.