Zechariah 11

Zechariah 11:1

Open thy door, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

A grievous destruction will light upon thee, O thou ungrateful land of Judea, for those repulses and indignities, which thou shalt offer to the Lord of Life: open thou therefore thy doors, O thou Temple of Jerusalem, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

Zechariah 11:2

Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because all the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

Howl and lament, O ye nobles; for your princes are fallen; all the men of power in Judea are spoiled: make lamentation, O ye of the meaner rank of Israel, for your great mem are cut off.

Zechariah 11:3

There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

There is great wailing and mourning of the rulers and priests, who should have fed and guided my people; for their glory is at an end: all the stout gallants of Judea do now roar and lament; for the magnificence of Jerusalem, and the strength of Jewry, is utterly wasted and come to nothing. XI. 4, 5. Thus saith the LORD my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter; Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. Thus saith the Lord my God; Yet amongst these Jews, which I have justly set out for this slaughter, there is a flock of mine, whom I have due care of; let them be carefully fed, and looked unto: They are in a perilous and woeful case; for their own governors and spiritual guides slay them, and think they do therein good service; and their victors, Titus and his Romans, sell them as merchandize, and rejoice in the wealth which they have raised from their price: and their own governors do not so much as pity them.

Zechariah 11:6

For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land.

For the rest, I will have no more compassion on the inhabitants of the land, who have called for the blood of that Just One, to be required of them and their children: for I will deliver them into the hand of each other, to be slain in civil discord; and into the hand of the Roman, whom they professed to be their king; and by both these means they shall be consumed.

Zechariah 11:7

And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.

As for that part of my flock, which are appointed as sheep to the slaughter, for my Name’s sake, I will carefully feed them; even you, O my poor little flock: and, for this cause, I took unto me two pastoral staves; the one, which I called Beauty, was the staff of mercy, and gracious and pleasurable protection; the other, which I called Bonds, was the staff of unity for the conjoining of my Church, or of correction and just censure of the offenders; and with these, I guided my little flock accordingly.

Zechariah 11:8

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

Your three sorts of leaders, Kings, Priests, and Prophets, I cut off together, in a very short space: they were well worthy of my just extirpation: I loathed them for their corruption and wickedness, and they no less abhorred my laws and justice.

Zechariah 11:9

Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, &c.

Then said I, of this refractory and perverse people of the Jews; I will take charge of you no more: whatsoever calamity befall you, I will not put my hand to redress it.

Zechariah 11:10

And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

And I took my staff, even the staff of my safeguard and protection, which I called Beauty, and cut it in sunder; that I might thereby signify, that, as this people had broke the covenant which they made with me by their wilful disobedience, so that I would free myself from regarding my promise of favour and preservation made to them.

Zechariah 11:12

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my

price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Thus I fed my charge; and, at the last, I said unto them, If I be approved of you as your shepherd, give ye me a return of those respects that are due to me, and that price and reward which my oversight and labour calls for at your hands; but, if otherwise ye accept not of me and my function, forbear. This I required of them; but they, instead of returning their holy obedience and due thankfulness unto me, weighed out thirty pieces of silver, which they gave unto a traitor, as the price of my life, which should by his perfidiousness be betrayed into their hands.

Zechariah 11:13

And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter:

a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. And the Lord said unto me, Make known by this thy prophecy unto the people, that this thirty pieces shall be cast unto the potter: say to them, It is a goodly price, whereat ye have valued me. And, accordingly, in vision, I took those thirty pieces of silver; and shewed them, that this sum, which should be offered to be delivered back to the high priests in the house of the Lord, should by them be put into the hands of a potter, for the purchase of a field for burial.

Zechariah 11:14

Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bonds,

that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Then I cut asunder mine other staff of unity, which I called Bonds; that I might thereby signify, that I had let loose all brotherly and peaceable respects, betwixt the true professors of the Gospel which are the spiritual Judah, and the revolted and erroneous sons of the spiritual Israel.

Zechariah 11:15

And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the

instruments of a foolish shepherd. Do thou, for a sign unto them, take unto thee such a staff, and such a scrip, as no wise shepherd would bear, as being misfashioned and useless; and let thy gesture and carriage be thereafter.

Zechariah 11:16

For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,

which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. And this shall foresignify unto them, that I will give way to a shepherd, not more foolish than wicked, to arise in my Church; even the Antichrist of the latter times; who shall cast off all care of my flock, either of seeking the strayed, or fetching in the weak and tender ones, or healing the broken, or carrying the lame and impotent: but, contrarily, he shall persecute my Church, and make a prey thereof; feeding himself fat, with the rich means, which he shall take from the great and mighty; and cruelly tyrannizing over the weak, with extreme violence, smiting and wounding them, that they may be disabled to stand up against him.

Zechariah 11:17

Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be quite dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

But, woe be to that false pastor, which only carries the name and semblance of an evangelical shepherd, who leaveth the flock to be wasted and spoiled! the just revenge of God shall be, both upon the power and policy of that man of sin: his power shall be abated and utterly weakened, by the breath of the mouth of God; and his craft and policy shall, at the last, end in disappointment and confusion.