11 1-4 Open your borders to the immigrants, proud Lebanon!
    Your sentinel trees will burn.
Weep, great pine trees! Mourn, you sister cedars!
    Your towering trees are cordwood.
Weep Bashan oak trees!
    Your thick forest is now a field of stumps.
Do you hear the wailing of shepherds?
    They’ve lost everything they once owned.
Do you hear the outrage of the lions?
    The mighty jungle of the Jordan is wasted.
Make room for the returning exiles!

Breaking the Beautiful Covenant

4-5 God commanded me, “Shepherd the sheep that are soon to be slaughtered. The people who buy them will butcher them for quick and easy money. What’s worse, they’ll get away with it. The people who sell them will say, ‘Lucky me! God’s on my side; I’ve got it made!’ They have shepherds who couldn’t care less about them.”

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Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
    the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks(A) of Bashan;
    the dense forest(B) has been cut down!(C)
Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
    their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;(D)
    the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!(E)

Two Shepherds

This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.(F)

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