Zechariah 11:4-14

4 Thus said the Lord my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5 Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, "Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich"; and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.
7 So, on behalf of the sheep merchants, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep.
8 In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me.
9 So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!"
10 I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.
12 I then said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.
13 Then the Lord said to me, "Throw it into the treasury" —this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Syr: Heb [it to the potter]
  • [b]. Syr: Heb [it to the potter]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.