Zechariah 11:1-11

The Doomed Flock

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, That a ¹fire may feed on your ²cedars.

2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because the glorious trees have been destroyed; Wail, O oaks of Bashan, For the impenetrable forest has come down.

3 There is a sound of the shepherds' ³wail, For their glory is ruined; There is a ⁴sound of the young lions' roar, For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.

4 Thus says the LORD my God, "Pasture the flock doomed to ⁵slaughter.

5 "Those who buy them slay them and go ⁶unpunished *, and each of those who sell them says, 'Blessed be the LORD, for ⁷I have become rich!' And their ⁸own shepherds have no pity on them.

6 "For I will ⁹no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD; "but behold, I will ¹⁰cause the men to fall, each into another's power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will ¹¹not deliver them from their power."

7 So I ¹²pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the ¹³afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ¹⁴staffs: the one I called ¹⁵Favor and the other I called ¹⁶Union; so I pastured the flock.

8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in ¹⁷one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.

9 Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to ¹⁸die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another's flesh."

10 I took my staff ¹⁹Favor and cut it in pieces, to ²⁰break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the ²¹afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD.

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Zechariah 11:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 11

This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews, and shows the causes and reasons of it; and is concluded with a prediction concerning antichrist. The destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it, is signified by figurative expressions, Zec 11:1,2 which occasions an howling among the shepherds or rulers of Israel, on account of whose cruelty and covetousness the wrath of God came upon them without mercy, Zec 11:3,5,6 but inasmuch as there were a remnant according to the election of grace among them, named the flock of the slaughter, Christ is called upon to feed them; who undertakes it, and prepares for it, Zec 11:4,7 but being abhorred by the shepherds, whom he therefore loathed and cut off, he determines to leave the people to utter ruin and destruction, Zec 11:8,9 and, as a token of it, breaks the two staves asunder he had took to feed them with, Zec 11:10,11,14 and, as an instance of their ingratitude to him, and which is a justification of his conduct towards them, notice is taken of his being valued at and sold for thirty pieces of silver, Zec 11:12,13 but, in the place of these shepherds cut off, it is suggested that another should arise, who is described by his folly, negligence, and cruelty, Zec 11:15,16 to whom a woe is denounced, Zec 11:17.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 21

1. Jeremiah 22:6, 7
2. Ezekiel 31:3
3. Jeremiah 25:34-36
4. Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 50:44
5. Psalms 44:22; Zechariah 11:7
6. Jeremiah 50:7
7. Hosea 12:8; 1 Timothy 6:9
8. Ezekiel 34:2, 3
9. Jeremiah 13:14
10. Isaiah 9:19-21; Micah 7:2-6; Zechariah 14:13
11. Psalms 50:22; Micah 5:8
12. Zechariah 11:4
13. Jeremiah 39:10; Zephaniah 3:12
14. Ezekiel 37:16
15. Psalms 27:4; Psalms 90:17; Zechariah 11:10
16. Psalms 133:1; Ezekiel 37:16-23; Zechariah 11:14
17. Hosea 5:7
18. Jeremiah 15:2
19. Zechariah 11:7
20. Psalms 89:39; Jeremiah 14:21
21. Zephaniah 3:12

Footnotes 19

[a]. Or "juniper"
[b]. Another reading is "forest of the vintage"
[c]. Or "jungle"
[d]. Lit "are not held guilty"
[e]. Lit "find"
[f]. Lit "hand"
[g]. Lit "hand"
[h]. Lit "hand"
[i]. Another reading is "for the sheep dealers"
[j]. Or "Pleasantness"
[k]. Or "Cords"
[l]. Or "detested"
[m]. Or "will die"
[n]. Or "will be annihilated"
[o]. Or "those...will eat"
[p]. Or "Pleasantness"
[q]. Or "annul"
[r]. Or "annulled"
[s]. Another reading is "the sheep dealers who"