Study Desk

Then I will camp around My house [as a guard] because of an army, Because of him who passes by and returns; And no oppressor will again overrun them (Israel), For now My eyes are upon them [providentially protecting them].

As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you [My chosen people, the covenant that was sealed with blood] I have freed your prisoners from the waterless pit.

For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fit the bow with Ephraim [as My arrow]. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, And will make you [Israel] like the sword of a warrior.

And the LORD their God shall save them on that day As the flock of His people; For they are like the [precious] jewels of a crown, Displayed and glittering in His land.

For how great is God's goodness and how great is His beauty! And how great [He will make Israel's] goodliness and [Israel's] beauty! Grain and new wine will make the young men and virgins flourish.

Ask for rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain. It is the LORD who makes the thunder clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field to everyone.

For the teraphim (household idols) speak wickedness (emptiness, worthlessness), And the diviners see lying visions And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted and suffer because there is no shepherd.

"My anger is kindled against the shepherds [who are not true shepherds], And I shall punish the male goats (leaders); For the LORD of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah (the Southern Kingdom), And will make them like His beautiful and majestic horse in the battle.

"I will strengthen the house of Judah [making it superior], And I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back [and allow them to live securely], Because I have had compassion on them. They will be as though I had not rejected them, For I am the LORD their God, and I will listen and answer them.

"I will whistle for them and gather them together, For I have redeemed them; And they will increase [again] as they have increased before [in Egypt].

"I will bring them (all Israel) back home again from the land of Egypt And gather them from Assyria, And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon [the land on the east and on the west of the Jordan] Until no room can be found for them.

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.

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

Thus says the LORD my God, "Pasture the flock doomed for slaughter,

whose buyers slay them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!' And their own shepherds have no pity on them nor protect them [from the wolves].

"For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will 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 not rescue the people from their hand."

So I [Zechariah] pastured the flock doomed for slaughter, truly [as the name implies] the most miserable of sheep. And I took two [shepherd's] staffs, the one I called Favor (Grace) and the other I called Union (Bonds); so I pastured the flock.

Then I eliminated the three [incompetent, unfit] shepherds [the civil rulers, the priests, and the prophets] in one month, for I was impatient with them, and they also were tired of me and despised me.

The LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment [of a shepherd, but this time] of a foolish shepherd.

"For behold, I am going to raise up a [false] shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or feed the healthy; but will eat the flesh of the fat ones and tear off their hoofs [to consume everything].