Zechariah 11
(1) The Region is Ruined
Open your gates, Lebanon, so a fire can burn up your cedar trees. Cypress trees, you can start crying now, because the cedar trees have fallen—yes, those majestic trees have been destroyed. Oak trees in Bashan, you can cry too, because the impenetrable forest has been taken down. Shepherds can be heard wailing, because their splendor is ruined, and lions can be heard roaring because the Jordan River’s excellence has been ruined.
(4) Zechariah Becomes a Bad Shepherd
This devastation is why the Existing One my God says,
“Just let the flock graze even though they’re destined to be slaughtered. People buy members of the flock and kill them without being held liable, while others sell them then praise Me for making them rich. As you can see, their own shepherds don’t even pity them. So I’m gonna stop having pity on the people who live in that region. Instead, I’ll cause them to fall to each other’s power and to the king. The land will be crushed in the process, but I won’t rescue them from each other.”
(7) Judah & Israel’s Brotherhood is Broken
So I let the flock graze even though they were destined to be slaughtered—that poor flock. I took two staffs to tend to the sheep and called one of them “Beauty,” and the other “Unity.” One month later, I got rid of the three shepherds, because they grieved me and hated me. Then I told the flock,
“I’m not gonna feed you anymore. Whichever ones of you die, dies—and whichever ones of you disappears, disappears. Whoever’s left can eat each other.”
Then I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it into pieces, symbolizing that the alliance I had made with everyone was dissolved. As the alliance was dissolved that day, some the poor flock members who were watching realized that it was the Existing One’s word. I told them,
“If it’s okay with you, then give me my wages—but if not, then don’t worry about it.”
So they counted out 30 silver coins as my wages.
Then the Existing One told me,
“Take that magnificent price they valued Me at, and give it to the potter.”
So I took the 30 coins and gave them to the potter in the Existing One’s house. Then I took my other staff, Union, and cut it into pieces, symbolizing that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel was broken.
(15) God will Establish a Bad Shepherd
Then the Existing One told me,
“Go get some shepherding equipment and become a bad shepherd again, because I’m gonna raise up a shepherd on the earth who won’t take care of the vulnerable, wont’ look for the scattered, won’t heal the broken, and won’t sustain the upright. Instead, he’ll take the fat sheep and gobble up their meat and tear off their hooves.
“Trouble awaits the bad shepherd who abandons the flock! A sword will cut his arm and his right eye. His arm will shrivel up, and his eye will go blind.”
