Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad

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.