Zechariah 11:1-14

New American Standard Bible 1995

The Doomed Flock

11 Open your doors, O Lebanon,

⁴ Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to ^(E)slaughter. ⁵ Those who buy them slay them and ^[d]go ^(F)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for ^(G)I have become rich!’ And their ^(H)own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶ For I will ^(I)no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will ^(J)cause the men to ^[e]fall, each into another’s ^[f]power and into the ^[g]power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will ^(K)not deliver them from their ^[h]power.”

⁷ So I ^(L)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^[i]hence the ^(M)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(N)staffs: the one I called ^[j](O)Favor and the other I called ^[k](P)Union; so I pastured the flock. ⁸ Then I annihilated the three shepherds in ^(Q)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^[l]was weary of me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to ^(R)die, ^[m]let it die, and what is to be annihilated, ^[n]let it be annihilated; and ^[o]let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” ¹⁰ I took my staff ^[p](S)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^[q](T)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was ^[r]broken on that day, and ^[s]thus the ^(U)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(V)wages; but if not, ^[t]never mind!” So they weighed out ^(W)thirty shekels of silver as my wages. ¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(X)potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^[u](Y)Union, to ^(Z)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.