Zechariah

11 Open, O Lebanon, thy doors,—That a fire may devour thy cedar.

2 Howl, fir-tree, for fallen is the cedar, Because the majestic ones are spoiled: Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For the inaccessible forest hath come down.

3 The noise of the howling of the shepherds, For spoiled is their majesty,—The noise of the roaring of the young lions, For spoiled are the proud banks of the Jordan.

4 Thus saith Yahweh my God,—Tend thou the flock doomed to slaughter:

5 Whose buyers slay them and are not held guilty, And whose sellers say—Blessed be Yahweh that I am become rich, And so their own shepherds have no pity upon them.

6 Surely I will have pity no longer upon the inhabitants of the earth, Declareth Yahweh,—Therefore lo! I am delivering up mankind Every man into the hand of his neighbour and into the hand of his king, And they will crush the earth Nor will I deliver out of their hand.

7 So I tended the flock doomed to slaughter, for the sheep-merchants,—and took unto me two staves, the one I called Grace and the other I called Union, thus I tended the sheep.

8 And I sent off three shepherds in one month,—for impatient was my soul with them, moreover also their soul felt a loathing against me.

9 Then said I—I will not tend you,—The dying may die and The disappearing may disappear, and The remainder may devour one another.

10 So I took my staff Grace, and cut it in two,—that I might set aside my covenant which I had solemnised with all the peoples.

11 When it was broken on that day then did the sheep-merchants who were watching me know that the word of Yahweh it was.

12 Then said I unto them, If it be good in your eyes give me my wage And if not forbear. So they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver.

13 Then said Yahweh unto me, Cast it into the treasury, The magnificent price at which I had been valued by them! So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them in the house of Yahweh into the treasury.

14 Then cut I in two my second staff, even Union,—that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then said Yahweh unto me,—Yet further take thee the implements of a worthless shepherd.

16 For lo! I am raising up a shepherd in the land, The disappearing will he not visit, The straying will he not seek, And the fractured will he not bind up,—The weak will he not nourish, But the flesh of the fat will he eat And their hoofs will he break in pieces.

17 Alas! for my worthless shepherd who forsaketh the flock, A sword upon his arm And upon his right eye!—His arm shall be utterly withered, And his right eye shall be wholly darkened.