LEB - Zechariah - 11

11:1  Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars!

11:2  Wail, O juniper, for the cedar has fallen, for the magnificent trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down!

11:3  Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! Listen to the roar of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

11:4  Thus says Yahweh my God: “Shepherd the flock doomed to slaughter.

11:5  The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I have become rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

11:6  For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land,” ⌞declares⌟ Yahweh. “Look, I am going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver anyone from their hand.”

11:7  And I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter, even the afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs, one I called Kindness, and the other I called Unity, and I shepherded the flock.

11:8  And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for ⌞I grew impatient⌟ with them, and ⌞they also became tired of me⌟.

11:9  So I said, “I will not shepherd you! The one dying will die, and the one to be destroyed will be destroyed. And the ones remaining, let them devour ⌞the flesh of each other⌟.”

11:10  And I took my staff Kindness and broke it, to break my covenant that I ⌞had made⌟ with all the peoples.

11:11  And it was broken on that day. Then the afflicted of the flock, the ones who were watching me, knew that it was the word of Yahweh.

11:12  And I said to them, “If ⌞it seems right to you⌟, give me my wages, but if not, ⌞keep them⌟.” And they weighed out my wages, thirty silver shekels.

11:13  And Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter,” ⌞this noble price⌟ at which I was valued by them!” So I took the thirty silver shekels and I threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

11:14  Then I broke my second staff Unity to break the family ties between Judah and Israel.

11:15  And Yahweh said to me, “Take again the implements of a foolish shepherd.

11:16  For look, I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not attend to the ones that are perishing; he will not seek the young man, he will not heal the ones that are crushed and he will not sustain the healthy ones; he will devour the flesh of the ⌞fattened ones⌟ and tear apart even their hoofs.

11:17  “Woe, my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword fall on his arm and on ⌞his right eye⌟! May his arm wither completely and ⌞his right eye⌟ be utterly blinded!”