Zechariah 11

Listen to Zechariah 11

The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

1 Open your doors, 1O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, 2oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled!
3 The sound of 3the wail of 4the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of 5the lions, 6for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4 Thus said the LORD my God: 7"Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5 8Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, 9I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6 For 10I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand."
7 11So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named 12Favor, the other I named 13Union. 14And I tended the sheep.
8 In one month 15I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.
9 So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. 16What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another."
10 And I took 17my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages 18thirty pieces of silver.
13 Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--19the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 20thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
14 Then I broke 21my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of 22a foolish shepherd.
16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd 23who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but 24devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
17 25"Woe to my worthless shepherd, 26who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and 27his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"

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.

Cross References 27

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

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.