Zechariah 11-12
Complete Jewish Bible
11 Open your doors, L’vanon,
so that fire can consume your cedars.
2 Wail, cypress, because the cedar has fallen,
those splendid trees are ruined.
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
because the thick forest has been felled.
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds,
because their glory is spoiled.
Listen to the roaring of young lions,
because the Yarden’s thickets are plundered.
4 Adonai my God says this: “Shepherd the flock for slaughter. 5 Their buyers kill them and go unpunished; while those who sell them say, ‘Barukh Adonai! Now I’m rich!’ Even their own shepherds show them no pity. 6 I will no longer show pity to the inhabitants of the land,” says Adonai. “No, I will hand every one of them over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king; they will crush the land; and I won’t rescue them from their power.”
7 So I shepherded the flock for slaughter, truly the most miserable of the sheep; and I took two staffs for myself. I called the one No‘am [pleasantness], the other I called Hovalim [bound together], and I shepherded the flock. 8 “In a single month I got rid of three shepherds, because I grew impatient with them; and besides, they detested me. 9 I said, ‘I’m not going to shepherd you. Whichever one is going to die, let it die; whichever is going to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and the rest can all devour each other.’”
10 I took my staff No‘am and snapped it in two, “in order to break my covenant, which I made with all the peoples.” 11 On that day when it was broken, the most miserable of the sheep who paid attention to me knew that this was indeed a message from Adonai. 12 I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; if not, don’t.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels, that is, twelve ounces]. 13 Concerning that “princely sum” at which they valued me, Adonai said, “Throw it into the treasury!” So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and threw them into the treasury in the house of Adonai.
14 Then I snapped in two my other staff Hovalim [bound together], in order to break up the brotherhood between Y’hudah and Isra’el. 15 Adonai said to me, “This time, take the equipment of a worthless shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who won’t bother about the ones who have been destroyed, won’t seek out the young, won’t heal the broken and won’t feed those standing still; on the contrary, he will eat the meat of the fat ones and break their hoofs in pieces.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons the sheep!
May a sword strike his arm
and his right eye.
May his arm be completely withered
and his right eye totally blinded.”
12 A prophecy, the word of Adonai concerning Isra’el — here is the message from Adonai, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit inside human beings:
2 “I will make Yerushalayim a cup
that will stagger the surrounding peoples.
Even Y’hudah will be caught up
in the siege against Yerushalayim.
3 When that day comes, I will make Yerushalayim
a heavy stone for all the peoples.
All who try to lift it will hurt themselves,
and all the earth’s nations will be massed against her.
4 When that day comes,” says Adonai,
“I will strike all the horses with panic
and their riders with madness;
I will keep watch over Y’hudah,
but I will strike blind all the horses of the peoples.
5 The leaders of Y’hudah will say to themselves,
‘Those living in Yerushalayim are my strength
through Adonai-Tzva’ot their God.’
6 When that day comes,
I will make the leaders of Y’hudah
like a blazing fire pan in a pile of wood,
like a fiery torch among sheaves of grain;
they will devour all the surrounding peoples,
on the right and on the left.
Yerushalayim will be inhabited
in her own place, Yerushalayim.
7 Adonai will save the tents of Y’hudah first,
so that the glory of the house of David
and the glory of those living in Yerushalayim
will not appear greater than that of Y’hudah.
8 When that day comes, Adonai will defend
those living in Yerushalayim.
On that day, even someone who stumbles
will be like David;
and the house of David will be like God,
like the angel of Adonai before them.
9 “When that day comes, I will seek to destroy
all nations attacking Yerushalayim;
10 and I will pour out on the house of David
and on those living in Yerushalayim
a spirit of grace and prayer;
and they will look to me, whom they pierced.”
They will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only son;
they will be in bitterness on his behalf
like the bitterness for a firstborn son.
11 When that day comes, there will be
great mourning in Yerushalayim,
mourning like that for Hadad-Rimmon
in the Megiddo Valley.
12 Then the land will mourn,
each family by itself —
the family of the house of David by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
the family of the house of Natan by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
the family of the Shim‘i by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
14 all the remaining families, each by itself,
and their wives by themselves.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Bible Gateway Recommends
