the <>Sixth Sunday after Easter
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Christian Standard Bible ®
Zechariah 11
Israel's Shepherds: Good and Bad
1 Open your gates, Lebanon,
and fire will consume your cedars.(a)
2 Wail, cypress,(b) for the cedar has fallen;
the glorious trees are destroyed!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,(c)
for the stately forest has fallen!
3 Listen to the wail(d) of the shepherds,
for their glory is destroyed.
Listen to the roar of young lions,(e)
for the thickets of the Jordan(f) are[a] destroyed.
4 Yahweh my God says this: "Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.(g) Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land"—this is the Lord's declaration. "Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them."(h)
7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock.[b] I took two staffs, calling one Favor(i) and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 Then I said, "I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is going astray go astray; let the rest devour each other's flesh." 10 Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 It was annulled on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock[c] who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." So they weighed my wages, 30 pieces of silver.(j)
13 "Throw it to the potter,"[d] the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.[e](k) 14 Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord also said to me: "Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are going astray, and he will not seek the lost[f] or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy,[g] but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep(l) and tear off their hooves.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who deserts the flock!(m)
May a sword strike[h] his arm
and his right eye!
May his arm wither away
and his right eye go completely blind!"
Christian Standard Bible ®
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
