Zechariah 11:1-7 ▼

1 Open your gates, Lebanon, so that the fire may consume your cedars.

2 Howl, fir tree, because the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees have been destroyed. Howl, oaks of Bashan, because the impenetrable forest has fallen.

3 Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.

4 The LORD my God says this: |Shepherd the flock set aside for slaughter.

5 Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich.' Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,| says the LORD, |but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.|

7 So I began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter, the most afflicted of all the flock. Then I took two staffs, calling one |Pleasantness| and the other |Binders,| and I tended the flock.