Zechariah 11:6

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Zechariah 11:6. I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land — I will no more spare them than their shepherds do. The inhabitants of the land are to be distinguished from the poor of the flock in the next verse. By the former are meant those who in their respective stations were as wicked as the rulers, chief priests, and others, termed their shepherds, Zechariah 11:5; by the latter, those who were oppressed and were piously disposed. But I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand — “This verse assigns the reason for calling the people, the flock of slaughter. Nor can words more aptly describe the calamities which befell the Jews in the war which ended in the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans; when the people, having first, by their intestine broils, destroyed one another, as is set forth at large by Josephus, at length fell into the hand of him whom they had owned for their sovereign, (‘we have no king but Cesar,’ John 19:15,) and who completely desolated the land for their rebellion against him.” — Blayney.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:4-14 Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers. The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in. The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver. By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out with them. Wilful contempt of Christ is the great cause of men's ruin. And if professors rightly valued Christ, they would not contend about little matters.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I will no more pity - Therefore were they a "flock of the slaughter," because God would "have no pity" on those who went after shepherds "who had no Pity" upon them, but corrupted them; who "entered not in themselves, and those who were entering in, they hindered" Luke 11:52.

The inhabitants of the land - "That land, of which he had been speaking," Judaea. "And lo." God, by this word, "lo," always commands heed to His great doings with man; I, I, Myself, visibly interposing, "will deliver man," the whole race of inhabitants, "every one into his neighbor's hand," by confusion and strife and hatred within, "and into the hand of his king," him whom they chose and took as their own king, when they rejected Christ as their King, repudiating the title which Pilate gave Him, to move their pity. Whereas He, their Lord and God, was their King, they formally "denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go; they denied the Holy One and the Just" Acts 3:13-14, and said, "We have no king but Caesar" John 19:15.

And they - The king without and the wild savages within, "shall smite," bruise, crush in pieces, like a broken vessel, "the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver" them. Their captivity shall be without remedy or end. Holy Scripture often says, "there is no deliverer Judges 18:28; 2 Samuel 14:6; Job 5:4; Psalm 7:3; Psalm 50:22; Psalm 71:11; Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 42:22; Hosea 5:14, Micah 5:7-8, or "none can deliver out of My hand" Deuteronomy 32:39; Job 10:7; Psalm 50:22; Psalm 71:11; Isaiah 43:13; Daniel 8:4, Daniel 8:7, or, since God delighteth in doing good, I Exo 6:6; 2 Kings 20:6; Jeremiah 15:21; Jeremiah 39:17; Ezekiel 34:27, He 1 Samuel 7:3; Psalm 18:15; Psalm 72:12; 2 Kings 17:39; Isaiah 19:20; Isaiah 31:5; Job 5:19, will deliver, or delivered Exodus 18:10; Joshua 24:10; Judges 6:9; 1 Samuel 10:18; 1 Samuel 14:10; 2 Samuel 22:1; Psalm 34:5, Psalm 34:18; Psalm 54:9; Ezra 8:31; Jeremiah 20:13 from the hands of the enemy, or their slavery, or their own fears, or afflictions, or the like. God nowhere else says absolutely as here, "I will not deliver" . "Hear, O Jew," says Jerome, "who holdest out to thyself hopes most vain, and hearest not the Lord strongly asserting, "I will not deliver them out of their hands," that thy captivity among the Romans shall have no end." In the threatened captivity before they were carried to Babylon, the prophet foretold the restoration: here only it is said of Judah, as Hosea had said of lsrael, that there should be no deliverer out of the hand of the king whom they had chosen.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Jehovah, in vengeance for their rejection of Messiah, gave them over to intestine feuds and Roman rule. The Zealots and other factious Jews expelled and slew one another by turns at the last invasion by Rome.

his king—Vespasian or Titus: they themselves (Joh 19:15) had said, unconsciously realizing Zechariah's words, identifying Rome's king with Judah's ("his") king, "We have no king but Cæsar." God took them at their word, and gave them the Roman king, who "smote (literally, 'dashed in pieces') their land," breaking up their polity, when they rejected their true King who would have saved them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For I will no more pity: their great sins have turned away God’s compassions from them, and men show no mercy where God withdraws his.

The inhabitants; the generality of the nation, the body of this sinful people.

I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand; leave to a turbulent, cruel, seditious, and fraudulent temper one against another, to make parties against each other, to rob, imprison, banish, or kill each other, as in the latter times of their state it is known they did.

Into the hand of his king; the Roman Caesar, called here the Jews’ king, for that they had chosen him to be so. Or else the head of the faction.

They shall smite the land; their king and his armies shall destroy the land: it may point to Vespasian and Titus, who sacked Jerusalem, burnt the temple, captivated ninety-seven thousand persons, and slew six hundred thousand at least, though Josephus reckons eleven hundred thousand.

Out of their hand I will not deliver them; they shall never more be by my hand delivered, or I will cast them off for ever; and so their captivity under the Romans continueth to this day.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord,.... Or spare them; but cause his wrath to come upon them to the uttermost, as it did at the time of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans;

but, lo, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbour's hand; this seems to refer to the factions and divisions among themselves during the siege of Jerusalem, when multitudes fell into the hands of the zealots, and heads of parties, and perished by them:

and into the hand of his king; Vespasian the Roman emperor; the Jews having declared, long before this time, that they had no king but Caesar, John 19:15 and now into his hands they were delivered up:

and they shall smite the land; that is, the Romans shall lay waste the land of Judea:

and out of their hand I will not deliver them; as formerly out of the hands of their neighbours, the Philistines, Ammonites, &c. and out of the captivity of Babylon. It denotes that their destruction would be an utter one; nor have they been delivered yet, though it has been over 1900 years ago.

Geneva Study Bible

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, {h} I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his {i} king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

(h) I will cause one to destroy another.

(i) Their governors will execute cruelty over them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. the men] Rather, man. This verse at once gives the reason of the misery described in Zechariah 11:5, viz. Jehovah’s displeasure, and interprets the parable of the flock. They of whom I am speaking are “the inhabitants of the land (of Judæa);” they are not sheep but “men.” Comp. Ezekiel 34:31.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - The inhabitants of the land. It is a question whether by this expression is meant the Israelites, or the dwellers on earth generally. In the former ease, the verso gives the reason of the calamities depicted in ver. 5, viz. God's displeasure, and expounds the parable of the sheep as meaning men (so Cheyne). In the other case, the signification of the paragraph is that God intends to put an end to the state of things just described, by punishing the oppressing world powers who had so cruelly executed their office of being instruments of God's judgment on his people. The latter seems the correct exposition; for the people of Israel have just been called the flock of slaughter, and they were to be fed, while these "inhabitants" are to be destroyed; nor could the Israelites be said to have kings, as just below. Thus for, at the beginning of the verse, introduces the reason why Jehovah tells the shepherd to feed the flock, because he is about to punish their oppressors; and "the inhabitants of the land" should be "the inhabitants of the earth;" i.e. the nations of the world, among whom the Israelites lived. I will deliver the men, etc. God will give up the nations to intestine commotions and civil war, so that they shall fall by mutual slaughter. Into the hand of his king. Each of them shall be delivered over helpless unto their tyrant's hands, and God will not interpose to succour them. Zechariah 11:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This section contains a symbolical act. By the command of Jehovah the prophet assumes the office of a shepherd over the flock, and feeds it, until he is compelled by its ingratitude to break his shepherd's staff, and give up the flock to destruction. This symbolical act is not a poetical fiction, but is to be regarded in strict accordance with the words, as an internal occurrence of a visionary character and of prophetical importance, through which the faithful care of the Lord for His people is symbolized and exhibited. Zechariah 11:4. "Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the slaughtering-flock; Zechariah 11:5. whose purchasers slay them, and bear no blame, and their sellers say, Blessed be Jehovah! I am getting rich, and their shepherds spare them not. Zechariah 11:6. For I shall no more spare the inhabitants of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah; and behold I cause the men to fall into one another's hands, and into the king's hand; and they will smite the land, and I shall not deliver out of their hand." The person who receives the commission to feed the flock is the prophet. This is apparent, both from the expression "my God" (Zechariah 11:5, comp. with Zechariah 11:7.), and also from Zechariah 11:15, according to which he is to take the instruments of a foolish shepherd. This latter verse also shows clearly enough, that the prophet does not come forward here as performing these acts in his own person, but that he represents another, who does things in Zechariah 11:8, Zechariah 11:12, and Zechariah 11:13, which in truth neither Zechariah nor any other prophet ever did, but only God through His Son, and that in Zechariah 11:10 He is identified with God, inasmuch as here the person who breaks the staff is the prophet, and the person who has made the covenant with the nations is God. These statements are irreconcilable, both with Hofmann's assumption, that in this symbolical transaction Zechariah represents the prophetic office, and with that of Koehler, that he represents the mediatorial office. For apart from the fact that such abstract notions are foreign to the prophet's announcement, these assumptions are overthrown by the fact that neither the prophetic office nor the mediatorial office can be identified with God, and also that the work which the prophet carries out in what follows was not accomplished through the prophetic office. "The destruction of the three shepherds, or world-powers (Zechariah 11:8), is not effected through the prophetic word or office; and the fourth shepherd (Zechariah 11:15) is not instituted through the prophetic office and word" (Kliefoth). The shepherd depicted by the prophet can only be Jehovah Himself, or the angel of Jehovah, who is equal in nature to Himself, i.e., the Messiah. But since the angel of Jehovah, who appears in the visions, is not mentioned in our oracle, and as the coming of the Messiah is also announced elsewhere as the coming of Jehovah to His people, we shall have in this instance also to understand Jehovah Himself by the shepherd represented in the prophet. He visits His flock, as it is stated in Zechariah 10:3 and Ezekiel 34:11-12, and assumes the care of them. The distinction between the prophet and Jehovah cannot be adduced as an argument against this; for it really belongs to the symbolical representation of the matter, according to which God commissions the prophet to do what He Himself intends to do, and will surely accomplish. The more precise definition of what is here done depends upon the answer to be given to the question, Who are the slaughtering flock, which the prophet undertakes to feed? Does it denote the whole of the human race, as Hofmann supposes; or the nation of Israel, as is assumed by the majority of commentators? צאן ההרגה, flock of slaughtering, is an expression that may be applied either to a flock that is being slaughtered, or to one that is destined to be slaughtered in the future. In support of the latter sense, Kliefoth argues that so long as the sheep are being fed, they cannot have been already slaughtered, or be even in process of slaughtering, and that Ezekiel 34:6 expressly states, that the men who are intended by the flock of slaughtering will be slaughtered in future when the time of sparing is over, or be treated in the manner described in Ezekiel 34:5. But the first of these arguments proves nothing at all, inasmuch as, although feeding is of course not equivalent to slaughtering, a flock that is being slaughtered by its owners might be transferred to another shepherd to be fed, so as to rescue it from the caprice of its masters. The second argument rests upon the erroneous assumption that ישׁבי הארץ in Ezekiel 34:6 is identical with the slaughtering flock. The epithet צאן ההרגה, i.e., lit., flock of strangling - as hârag does not mean to slay, but to strangle - is explained in Ezekiel 34:5. The flock is so called, because its present masters are strangling it, without bearing guilt, to sell it for the purpose of enriching themselves, and its shepherds treat it in an unsparing manner; and Ezekiel 34:6 does not give the reason why the flock is called the flock of strangling or of slaughtering (as Kliefoth supposes), but the reason why it is given up by Jehovah to the prophet to feed. לא יאשׁמוּ does not affirm that those who are strangling it do not think themselves to blame - this is expressed in a different manner (cf. Jeremiah 50:7): nor that they do not actually incur guilt in consequence, or do not repent of it; for Jehovah transfers the flock to the prophet to feed, because He does not wish its possessors to go on strangling it, and אשׁם never has the meaning, to repent. לא יאשׁמוּ refers rather to the fact that these men have hitherto gone unpunished, that they still continue to prosper. So that 'âshēm means to bear or expiate the guilt, as in Hosea 5:15; Hosea 14:1 (Ges., Hitzig, Ewald, etc.).

What follows also agrees with this, - namely, that the sellers have only their own advantage in view, and thank God that they have thereby become rich. The singular יאמר is used distributively: every one of them says so. ואעשׁר, a syncopated form for ואעשׁר (Ewald, 73, b), and ו expressing the consequence, that I enrich myself (cf. Ewald, 235, b). רעיהם are the former shepherds. The imperfects are not futures, but express the manner in which the flock was accustomed to be treated at the time when the prophet undertook to feed it. Jehovah will put an end to this capricious treatment of the flock, by commanding the prophet to feed it. The reason for this He assigns in Zechariah 11:6 : For I shall not spare the inhabitants of the earth any longer. ישׁבי הארץ cannot be the inhabitants of the land, i.e., those who are described as the "flock of slaughtering" in Zechariah 11:4; for in that case "feeding" would be equivalent to slaughtering, or making ready for slaughtering. But although a flock is eventually destined for slaughtering, it is not fed for this purpose only, but generally to yield profit to its owner. Moreover, the figure of feeding is never used in the Scriptures in the sense of making ready for destruction, but always denotes fostering and affectionate care for the preservation of anything; and in the case before us, the shepherd feeds the flock entrusted to him, by slaying the three bad shepherds; and it is not till the flock has become weary of his tending that he breaks the shepherd's staves, and lays down his pastoral office, to give them up to destruction. Consequently the ישׁבי הארץ are different from the צאן ההרגה, and are those in the midst of whom the flock is living, or in whose possession and power it is. They cannot be the inhabitants of a land, however, but since they have kings (in the plural), as the expression "every one into the hand of his king" clearly shows, the inhabitants of the earth, or the world-powers; from which it also follows that the "flock of slaughtering" is not the human race, but the people of Israel, as we may clearly see from what follows, especially from Zechariah 11:11-14. Israel was given up by Jehovah into the hands of the nations of the world, or the imperial powers, to punish it for its sin. But as these nations abused the power entrusted to them, and sought utterly to destroy the nation of God, which they ought only to have chastised, the Lord takes charge of His people as their shepherd, because He will no longer spare the nations of the world, i.e., will not any longer let them deal with His people at pleasure, without being punished. The termination of the sparing will show itself in the fact that God causes the nations to destroy themselves by civil wars, and to be smitten by tyrannical kings. המציא ביד ר, to cause to fall into the hand of another, i.e., to deliver up to his power (cf. 2 Samuel 3:8). האדם is the human race; and מלכּו, the king of each, is the king to whom each is subject. The subject of כּתּתוּ is רעהוּ and מלכּו, the men and the kings who tyrannize over the others. These smite them in pieces, i.e., devastate the earth by civil war and tyranny, without any interposition on the part of God to rescue the inhabitants of the earth, or nations beyond the limits of Israel, out of their hand, or to put any restraint upon tyranny and self-destruction.