Zechariah 11:4-14

New American Standard Bible 1995

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

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