Zechariah 11
1OPEN thy gates, 0 Lebanon and let a fire devour thy cedars.
2Raise the mournful cry, O pine tree, since the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are in great distress. Howl, ye oaks of Basan, because the thick-planted forest is rooted up.
3A sound of shepherds [is heard] singing the song of woe, because their greatness is brought to distress; a sound of lions roaring, because the swelling of the Jordan hath been distressed.
4Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: You are feeding the flock prepared for slaughter,
5which their possessors were slaughtering, and spared not; and they who sold them said, Blessed be the Lord for we are enriched. And their shepherds had no feeling for them.
6Therefore I will no more spare the inhabitants of this land, saith the Lord. Now behold I deliver up the men, each one into the hand of his neighbour, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and I will not deliver out of their hand.
7Again I will feed the flock of the slaughter in the land of Chanaan; and I will take my two staves, one I had called Beauty, and the other I called Porfion*; and I will feed the flock,
8and remove three shepherds in one month; and my soul will be weighed down against them. For as their souls roared against me,
9therefore I said, I will not feed you; what is dying, let it die; and what is fainting let it faint. And a s for the rest, let them devour everyone the flesh of his neighbour.
10And I will take my staff Beauty, and throw it away, that I may break my covenant which I made with all these tribes.
11And on that day it shall be broken; and the Chananites, the sheep that are kept for me, shall know for what cause there is a word of the Lord.
12Then I will say to them, If it seemeth good in your sight, give me my wages; if not, forbear. And when they had weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver,
13then the Lord said to me, Put them in the smelting furnace, and let Me see whether it be proof: as I have been proved for them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them down in the house of the Lord, for the smelting furnace.
14Then I threw away the other staff Portion, that I may break the joint tenancy between Juda and Israel.
15Then the Lord said to me, Take thee yet the pastoral utensils of an unskilful shepherd;
16for behold I am about to raise up a shepherd against this land, who will not visit what is fainting, nor seek what is scattered; nor heal what is bruised; nor lead aright what is sound; but will devour the flesh of the choice shepherds, and tear their joints asunder.
17O ye wanton who have forsaken the sheep. There is a sword against his arms, and against his right eye. His arm shall be quite withered, and his right eye utterly blinded.