1
Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedar forests.
2
Weep, you cypress trees, for all the ruined cedars; the most majestic ones have fallen. Weep, you oaks of Bashan, for the thick forests have been cut down.
3
Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their rich pastures are destroyed. Hear the young lions roaring, for their thickets in the Jordan Valley are ruined.
4
This is what the LORD my God says: “Go and care for the flock that is intended for slaughter.
5
The buyers slaughter their sheep without remorse. The sellers say, ‘Praise the LORD ! Now I’m rich!’ Even the shepherds have no compassion for them.
6
Likewise, I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” says the LORD . “I will let them fall into each other’s hands and into the hands of their king. They will turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not rescue them.”
7
So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter—the flock that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd’s staffs and named one Favor and the other Union.
8
I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these sheep, and they hated me, too.