Zechariah 11:3

3 The rulers cry out in grief; their glory is gone! Listen to the roaring of the lions; their forest home along the Jordan is destroyed!

Zechariah 11:3 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 11:3

[There is] a voice of the howling of the shepherds
Which may be understood either of the civil rulers among the Jews, who now lose their honour and their riches; and so the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret it of kings; or of the ecclesiastical rulers, the elders of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees: for their glory is spoiled;
their power and authority; their riches and wealth; their places of honour and profit; their offices, posts, and employments, whether in civil or religious matters, are taken from them, and they are deprived of them: a voice of the roaring of young lions;
of princes, comparable to them for their power, tyranny, and cruelty: the Targum is,

``their roaring is as the roaring of young lions:''

for the pride of Jordan is spoiled;
a place where lions and their young ones resorted, as Jarchi observes; (See Gill on Jeremiah 49:19). Jordan is here put for the whole land of Judea now wasted, and so its pride and glory gone; as if the waters of Jordan were dried up, the pride and glory of that, and which it showed when its waters swelled and overflowed; hence called by Pliny ^F24 "ambitiosus amnis", a haughty and ambitious swelling river.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 15.

Zechariah 11:3 In-Context

1 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn down your cedar trees!

2 Weep and wail, cypress trees - the cedars have fallen; those glorious trees have been destroyed! Weep and wail, oaks of Bashan - the dense forest has been cut down!

3 The rulers cry out in grief; their glory is gone! Listen to the roaring of the lions; their forest home along the Jordan is destroyed!

4 The Lord my God said to me, "Act the part of the shepherd of a flock of sheep that are going to be butchered.

5 Their owners kill them and go unpunished. They sell the meat and say, "Praise the Lord! We are rich!' Even their own shepherds have no pity on them."