For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Zech 11:1-17
1 Open your doors, Lebanon,
so that fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan;
the dense forest has been cut down!
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”
7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”
10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!”
A. Find Out
- What picture of destruction is conveyed? v.1-3
- What lack of care is conveyed in the next picture? v.4-6
- Despite all this, how had the Lord acted? v.7,8
- What had He concluded? v.9-11
- What further? v.12-14
- What was the final outcome? v.15-17
B. Think:
- What final state(?) is shown? v.1-3
- What had the Lord done to the flock? v.4-14
- How does He summarize what has taken place? v.15-17
C. Comment:
Commentators suggest this is one of the most difficult chapters of Scripture to come to terms with, so we suggest, tentatively as follows:
Verses 1-3 paint a picture of devastation, possibly how the exiles found it on their return. Having said that, because of what follows it may be how it occurred when the Babylonian invaders had come, a picture of a flock destined for slaughter (v.4,5) in the hands of uncaring shepherds (?before the invasion). The Lord had given them over to their enemies (v.6) after having failed to preserve them despite having brought His favor to unite His people (v.7), removing their uncaring shepherds (v.8a), but the flock had despised Him (v.8b) so He gave up on them (v.9) and revoked His previous intentions (v.10) so they should understand what was going on (v.11). When He called for them to give Him what was due Him, they gave him a paltry sum (v.12) which He rejected while annulling His previous covenant at the Temple (v.13,14) and He abandoned them to a foolish and careless shepherd (?king) over His people (v.15,16) who will desert them and be cursed (v.17).
So we have assumed that the shepherds referred to were the kings in the closing years before the final invasion by Nebuchadnezzar and the start of the Exile. As a confusing picture it perhaps conveys something of the spiritual confusion that has existed in the Land in the years while Jeremiah and Ezekiel brought warning after warning and the kings and religious establishment continued to reject God.
D. Application:
- When understanding is not clear, seek to catch a feeling of events.
- Sometimes God’s prophetic word refers backwards to what had been.