Zechariah 11:4-14

Evangelical Heritage Version

Shepherd the flock which is to be slaughtered. ⁵ Those who buy them slaughter them and are not held accountable, and those who sell them say, “Bless the Lord! I have become rich!” Their own shepherds show them no compassion, ⁶ because I will no longer show compassion to the people of the land, declares the Lord.

Look, I will bring it about that each one of them will fall into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. They will crush the land, and I will rescue no one from their hands.

⁷ So I^[a] shepherded the flock which is to be slaughtered, especially the most afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. One I called Favor and the other Union. Then I shepherded the flock. ⁸ I removed three shepherds in one month. I grew very impatient with the flock, and they really detested me. ⁹ So I said, “I will not shepherd you. Whatever is dying, let it die. Whatever is being destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”

¹⁰ I took my staff, Favor, and I broke it in two, to cancel my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was cancelled on that day, and the most miserable of the flock, who were watching me, knew that this was the word of the Lord.

¹² Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages. But if it does not, withhold them.” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my wages.

¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, this magnificent price at which they valued me.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I threw them into the House of the Lord, to the potter.

¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff, Union, to break the brotherhood between the house of Judah and the house of Israel.