Zechariah 11:1-13 ▼

1 Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, And fire doth devour among thy cedars.

2 Howl, O fir, for fallen hath the cedar, For their honourable ones were destroyed, Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For come down hath the fenced forest,

3 A voice of the howling of the shepherds! For destroyed was their robe of honour, A voice of the roaring of young lions! For destroyed was the excellency of Jordan.

4 Thus said Jehovah my God: 'Feed the flock of the slaughter,

5 Whose buyers slay them, and are not guilty, And their sellers say, Blessed is Jehovah, And I am rich, And their shepherds have no pity on them.

6 For I have pity no more on inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah, And lo, I am causing man to come forth, Each into the hand of his neighbour, And into the hand of his king, And they have beaten down the land, And I do not deliver out of their hand.'

7 And I feed the flock of slaughter, even you, ye afflicted of the flock; and I take to me two staves, the one I have called Pleasantness, and the other I have called Bands, and I feed the flock.

8 And I cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul is grieved with them, and also their soul hath abhorred me.

9 And I say, 'I do not feed you, the dying, let die; and the cut off, let be cut off; and the remaining ones, let each eat the flesh of its neighbour.'

10 And I take My staff Pleasantness, and cut it asunder, to make void My covenant that I had made with all the peoples:

11 and it is broken in that day, and know well do the afflicted of the flock who are observing me, that it is a word of Jehovah.

12 And I say unto them: 'If good in your eyes, give my hire, and if not, forbear;' and they weigh out my hire -- thirty silverlings.

13 And Jehovah saith unto me, 'Cast it unto the potter;' the goodly price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty silverlings, and cast them to the house of Jehovah, unto the potter.