Zechariah 11:3

3 [Listen to] the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! [Listen to] the roar of [the] young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

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, [O] Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars!

2 Wail, O juniper, for [the] cedar has fallen, for [the] magnificent [trees] are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down!

3 [Listen to] the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! [Listen to] the roar of [the] young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

4 Thus says Yahweh my God: "Shepherd the flock [doomed] to slaughter.

5 The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, 'Blessed [be] Yahweh, for I have become rich.' Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.