So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. So I pastured the flockThe Hebrew word for "pastured" is "רָעָה" (ra'ah), which means to tend, graze, or shepherd. This imagery of shepherding is deeply rooted in the biblical tradition, symbolizing leadership and care. In the context of Zechariah, it reflects God's role as the ultimate Shepherd of Israel, guiding and nurturing His people. Historically, shepherding was a common occupation in ancient Israel, and it served as a powerful metaphor for divine guidance and protection. marked for slaughter
The phrase "marked for slaughter" indicates a grim fate awaiting the flock. The Hebrew word "הַהֲרֵגָה" (haharegah) suggests a predetermined destiny of destruction. This reflects the dire situation of Israel at the time, facing judgment due to their disobedience and rejection of God's covenant. It serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of straying from God's path. particularly the oppressed of the flock
The term "oppressed" comes from the Hebrew "עֲנִיֵּי" (aniyyey), meaning poor or afflicted. This highlights God's concern for the marginalized and downtrodden within His people. Throughout Scripture, God consistently shows a special care for the oppressed, calling His followers to do the same. This phrase underscores the compassionate aspect of God's character, even amidst judgment. Then I took two staffs
The act of taking "two staffs" is symbolic. In ancient Near Eastern culture, a shepherd's staff was a tool of authority and guidance. The two staffs here represent different aspects of God's relationship with His people. This duality suggests a comprehensive approach to leadership, encompassing both grace and unity. calling one Favor
The staff named "Favor" (Hebrew "נֹעַם" - no'am) signifies grace, beauty, and pleasantness. It represents God's benevolence and the blessings He bestows upon His people. This staff symbolizes the covenantal relationship where God extends His favor to those who follow Him, offering protection and provision. and the other Union
The second staff, "Union" (Hebrew "חֹבְלִים" - chovlim), signifies bonds or unity. This represents the unity and harmony God desires among His people. Historically, Israel was often divided, both internally and externally. This staff symbolizes God's intention to bring His people together, fostering peace and solidarity. and I pastured the flock
Reiterating the act of shepherding, this phrase emphasizes the ongoing care and leadership provided by God. It serves as a reminder of His faithfulness and commitment to His people, even when they are marked for judgment. The repetition underscores the persistent nature of God's love and guidance, inviting His people to return to Him and experience His favor and unity. Persons / Places / Events 1. ZechariahA prophet in the post-exilic period who conveyed God's messages to the Israelites. His prophecies often contained visions and symbolic actions. 2. The FlockRepresents the people of Israel, particularly those who are oppressed and in need of guidance and protection. 3. Two Staffs - Favor and UnionSymbolic tools used by Zechariah in his role as a shepherd. "Favor" represents God's grace and blessing, while "Union" symbolizes the unity among the people of Israel. 4. The ShepherdZechariah himself, acting out a symbolic role to convey God's message to the people. 5. The Oppressed of the FlockA specific group within the flock that is particularly vulnerable and in need of care, representing those who are faithful and attentive to God's word. Teaching Points God's Sovereignty and CareThe staffs "Favor" and "Union" symbolize God's active role in guiding and uniting His people. Believers can trust in God's sovereign care and seek His favor in their lives. The Role of LeadershipZechariah's role as a shepherd highlights the responsibility of leaders to care for and protect those under their charge. Christian leaders today are called to shepherd their communities with integrity and compassion. Unity Among BelieversThe staff "Union" emphasizes the importance of unity within the body of Christ. Believers are encouraged to work towards reconciliation and harmony within their communities. Listening to God's WordThe "oppressed of the flock" who recognize God's message serve as a reminder of the importance of being attentive to God's word and responding in faith. The Consequences of RejectionThe breaking of the staffs later in the chapter serves as a warning of the consequences of rejecting God's guidance and favor. Believers are urged to remain faithful and obedient to God's leading. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the imagery of the shepherd and the staffs in Zechariah 11:7 enhance our understanding of God's relationship with His people? 2. In what ways can Christian leaders today emulate the role of a shepherd as depicted in Zechariah 11:7? 3. How can we, as members of the body of Christ, work towards maintaining unity within our communities? 4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure we are attentive to God's word, like the "oppressed of the flock"? 5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's "Favor" in your life. How did it impact your faith journey, and how can you share that experience with others? Connections to Other Scriptures Psalm 23The imagery of the shepherd and the staff connects to the well-known Psalm where God is depicted as the shepherd who guides and protects His people. John 10Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, drawing a parallel to the shepherd imagery in Zechariah, emphasizing care and sacrifice for the flock. Ezekiel 34This chapter discusses the failure of Israel's leaders as shepherds and God's promise to be the true shepherd for His people, similar to the themes in Zechariah 11. People ZechariahPlaces Bashan, Jordan River, LebanonTopics Afflicted, Bands, Beautiful, Beauty, Binders, Care, Death, Doomed, Especially, Favor, Fed, Feed, Flock, Grace, Graciousness, Hence, Marked, Myself, Named, Naming, O, Oppressed, Particularly, Pastured, Pleasantness, Poor, Profit, Rods, Sheep, Shepherd, Slain, Slaughter, Staffs, Staves, Tended, Trafficked, Truly, Union, VerilyDictionary of Bible Themes Zechariah 11:7 4512 staff Zechariah 11:7-17 7130 flock, God's Library Inspiration of Scripture. --Gospel Difficulties. --The Word of God Infallible. --Other Sciences Subordinate to Theological Science.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. BUT that is not exactly what St. Paul says. The Greek for that, would be He graphe--not pasa graphe--theopneustos. St. Paul does not say that the whole of Scripture, collectively, is inspired. More than that: what he says is, that every writing,--every several book of those hiera grammata, or Holy Scriptures, in which Timothy had been instructed from his childhood,--is inspired by God [330] . It comes to very nearly the same thing but it is not quite …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and InterpretationAnd Again David Says:...
And again David says: They looked upon me: they parted my garments among them, and upon any vesture they cast lots. For at His crucifixion the soldiers parted His garments as they were wont; and the garments they parted by tearing; but for the vesture, because it was woven from the top and was not sewn, they cast lots, that to whomsoever it should fall he should take it. And again Jeremiah the prophet says: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was sold, whom they bought …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching In the House of his Heavenly, and in the Home of his Earthly Father - the Temple of Jerusalem - the Retirement at Nazareth.
Once only is the great silence, which lies on the history of Christ's early life, broken. It is to record what took place on His first visit to the Temple. What this meant, even to an ordinary devout Jew, may easily be imagined. Where life and religion were so intertwined, and both in such organic connection with the Temple and the people of Israel, every thoughtful Israelite must have felt as if his real life were not in what was around, but ran up into the grand unity of the people of God, and …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Good Shepherd' and his one Flock' - Last Discourse at the Feast of Tabernacles.
The closing words which Jesus had spoken to those Pharisees who followed HIm breathe the sadness of expected near judgment, rather than the hopefulness of expostulation. And the Discourse which followed, ere He once more left Jerusalem, is of the same character. It seems, as if Jesus could not part from the City in holy anger, but ever, and only, with tears. All the topics of the former Discourses are now resumed and applied. They are not in any way softened or modified, but uttered in accents of …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Discourse on the Good Shepherd.
(Jerusalem, December, a.d. 29.) ^D John X. 1-21. ^d 1 Verily, verily, I say to you [unto the parties whom he was addressing in the last section], He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [In this section Jesus proceeds to contrast his own care for humanity with that manifested by the Pharisees, who had just cast out the beggar. Old Testament prophecies were full of declarations that false shepherds would arise to …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The First Trumpet.
The first trumpet of the seventh seal begins from the final disturbance and overthrow of the Roman idolarchy at the close of the sixth seal; and as it was to bring the first plague on the empire, now beginning to fall, it lays waste the third part of the earth, with a horrible storm of hail mingled with fire and blood; that is, it depopulates the territory and people of the Roman world, (viz. the basis and ground of its universal polity) with a terrible and bloody irruption of the northern nations, …
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse Remorse and Suicide of Judas.
(in the Temple and Outside the Wall of Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 3-10; ^E Acts I. 18, 19. ^a 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned [Judas, having no reason to fear the enemies of Jesus, probably stood in their midst and witnessed the entire trial], repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. [There are two Greek words which are translated "repented," …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's …
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author
In Isaiah 41:21-23 we have what is probably the most remarkable challenge to be found in the Bible. "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." This Scripture has both a negative …
Arthur W. Pink—The Divine Inspiration of the Bible A Discourse of the House and Forest of Lebanon
OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. That part of Palestine in which the celebrated mountains of Lebanon are situated, is the border country adjoining Syria, having Sidon for its seaport, and Land, nearly adjoining the city of Damascus, on the north. This metropolitan city of Syria, and capital of the kingdom of Damascus, was strongly fortified; and during the border conflicts it served as a cover to the Assyrian army. Bunyan, with great reason, supposes that, to keep …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for Relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World.
John iii. 3. John iii. 3. --Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent. That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God The Covenant of Works
Q-12: I proceed to the next question, WHAT SPECIAL ACT OF PROVIDENCE DID GOD EXERCISE TOWARDS MAN IN THE ESTATE WHEREIN HE WAS CREATED? A: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge upon pain of death. For this, consult with Gen 2:16, 17: And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy.
The fact of Covenanting, under the Old Testament dispensations, being approved of God, gives a proof that it was proper then, which is accompanied by the voice of prophecy, affording evidence that even in periods then future it should no less be proper. The argument for the service that is afforded by prophecy is peculiar, and, though corresponding with evidence from other sources, is independent. Because that God willed to make known truth through his servants the prophets, we should receive it …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Zechariah 11:7 NIVZechariah 11:7 NLTZechariah 11:7 ESVZechariah 11:7 NASBZechariah 11:7 KJV
Zechariah 11:7 Commentaries
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