Zechariah 11 · The Lantern

The Doomed Flock

Open your doors, Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars.

Wail, cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the majestic ones are devastated! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage has come down!

A voice of the wailing of the shepherds, for their majesty is devastated! A voice of the roaring of young lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is devastated!

Thus says the LORD my God: Shepherd the flock of the slaughter,

whose buyers slay them and are not held guilty, and those selling them say, Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich! And their shepherds have no pity on them.

For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land — the utterance of the LORD. And see, I am causing men to be found, each in the hand of his neighbor and in the hand of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not deliver from their hand.

And I shepherded the flock of the slaughter — therefore the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: one I called Pleasantness and one I called Cords; and I shepherded the flock.

And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; and my soul grew short with them, and their soul also loathed me.

And I said, I will not shepherd you. Let the one dying die, and the one being cut off be cut off; and let those remaining eat, each the flesh of her companion.

Thirty Pieces of Silver

And I took my staff, Pleasantness, and cut it down, to break my covenant that I had cut with all the peoples.

And it was broken in that day; and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

And I said to them, If it is good in your eyes, give my wages; and if not, refrain. And they weighed out my wages, thirty of silver.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

Hear now in regard to thirty pieces of silver: "And I will say to them, 'If it seems good to you, give me my wages, or refuse.' " One recompense is due me for curing the blind and the lame, and I receive another; instead of thanksgiving, dishonor, and instead of worship, insult. Do you see how Scripture foresaw all this?

(Verse 12, 13.) And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, give me my reward, and if not, stop; and they gave me my reward, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Throw them (Vulgate: it) to the potter, a handsome price at which I was appraised by them: and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.

And the LORD said to me, Throw it to the potter — the noble price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty of silver and threw it into the house of the LORD, to the potter.

And I cut down my second staff, the Cords, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

And the LORD said to me, Take for yourself again the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

For see, I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not attend to those being cut off, will not seek the young, will not heal the broken, will not sustain the one standing; and he will eat the flesh of the fat one and tear off their hoofs.

Ah, worthless shepherd, forsaking the flock! A sword on his arm and on his right eye! His arm will surely wither, and his right eye will surely go dim.

Zechariah11

The Doomed Flock

Thirty Pieces of Silver