Zechariah 11

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars.
2 Scream, cypress, for the cedar has fallen; those majestic ones have been devastated. Scream, oaks of Bashan, for the deep forest has fallen.
3 The sound of screaming appears among the shepherds because their majesty has been devastated. The sound of roaring can be heard among the young lions because the pride of the Jordan has been devastated.

The shepherd’s two staffs

4 This is what the LORD my God says: Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter.
5 Those who buy them will kill them, but they will go unpunished. Those who sell them will say, "Blessed is the LORD, for I have become rich." And their own shepherds won't spare them.
6 In fact, I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD. But look what I am about to bring upon humanity, upon each of them by their neighbor's hand and by the hand of their king: They will beat the land to pieces, but I won't rescue anyone from their hand.
7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. I named one Delight; the other I named Harmony. I shepherded the flock.
8 I removed three shepherds in one month when I grew impatient with them. Moreover, they detested me.
9 Then I said, "I won't shepherd you. Let the dying die, and let what is to be removed be removed. Let those who are left devour the flesh of their neighbor."
10 Then I took the staff Delight, and I chopped it up in order to break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
11 It was broken on that day. As a result, the afflicted of the flock knew that it was the LORD's word.
12 And I said to them, "If it appears good to you, give me my wages; but if not, then stop." So they weighed out my wages, thirty shekels of silver.
13 The LORD said to me, "Put it in the treasury. They value me at too magnificent a price." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and put them in the treasury of the LORD's house.
14 Then I chopped up my second staff Harmony, to break the alliance between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself again the equipment of a foolish shepherd,
16 because I am about to appoint a shepherd in the land. He won't tend to those who have been removed. He won't seek the young or heal the broken. He won't sustain the one standing. Instead, he will devour the flesh of the fat ones, even tearing off their hooves.
17 Doom, foolish shepherd who forsakes the flock. A sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will wither completely; his right eye will become blind."

Zechariah 11 Commentary

Chapter 11

Destruction to come upon the Jews. (1-3) The Lord's dealing with the Jews. (4-14) The emblem and curse of a foolish shepherd. (15-17)

Verses 1-3 In figurative expressions, that destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, is foretold, which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied plainly and expressly. How can the fir trees stand, if the cedars fall? The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those every way their inferiors. It is sad with a people, when those who should be as shepherds to them, are as young lions. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks; and when the river overflowed the banks, the lions came up from them roaring. Thus the doom of Jerusalem may alarm other churches.

Verses 4-14 Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers. The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in. The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver. By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out with them. Wilful contempt of Christ is the great cause of men's ruin. And if professors rightly valued Christ, they would not contend about little matters.

Verses 15-17 God, having showed the misery of this people in their being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd, receives submission, and is supported at much expense; but he leaves the flock to perish through neglect, or leads them to ruin by his example. This suits many in different churches and nations, but the warning had an awful fulfilment in the Jewish teachers. And while such deceive others to their ruin, they will themselves have the deepest condemnation.

Footnotes 5

Chapter Summary

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.

Zechariah 11 Commentaries

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