Zechariah, 11

1. Open your gateways, Lebanon, and the fire shall burn down your cedar trees!

1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

2. Wail, juniper, for the cedar tree has fallen, the majestic ones have been ravaged! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has been felled!

2. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

3. The sound of the wailing of shepherds! Their majesty has been ravaged. The sound of the roaring of young lions! The pride of the Jordan has been ravaged.

3. [There is] a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

4. Yahweh my God says this, 'Pasture the sheep for slaughter,

4. Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;

5. whose buyers kill them and go unpunished, whose sellers say of them, "Blessed be Yahweh; now I am rich!" and whose own shepherds show them no pity.

5. Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed [be] the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

6. For I shall show no further pity for the inhabitants of the country -- Yahweh declares! Instead, I shall put everyone into the clutches of a neighbour, into the clutches of the king. They will crush the country and I shall not rescue anyone from their clutches.'

6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver [them].

7. Then I pastured for slaughter the sheep belonging to the sheep-dealers. I took two staves: the one I called 'Goodwill', the other 'Couplers'; and I pastured the sheep myself,

7. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, [even] you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

8. getting rid of three shepherds in one month. But I lost patience with them, and they equally detested me.

8. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

9. I then said, 'I am not going to pasture you any more; the one doomed to die can die; the one doomed to perish can perish; and the rest can devour one another.'

9. Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.

10. I then took my staff, 'Goodwill', and broke it in half, to break my covenant, which I had made with all the peoples.

10. And I took my staff, [even] Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

11. When it was broken, that day the sheep-dealers, who were watching me, realised that this had been a word of Yahweh.

11. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it [was] the word of the LORD.

12. I then said to them, 'If you see fit, give me my wages; if not, never mind.' So they weighed out my wages: thirty shekels of silver.

12. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give [me] my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty [pieces] of silver.

13. Yahweh said to me, 'Throw it to the smelter, this princely sum at which they have valued me!' Taking the thirty shekels of silver, I threw them into the Temple of Yahweh, for the smelter.

13. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty [pieces] of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

14. I then broke my second staff, 'Couplers,' in half, to rupture the brotherly relationship between Judah and Israel.

14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, [even] Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15. Next, Yahweh said to me, 'This time, take the gear of a good-for-nothing shepherd.

15. And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

16. For I am now going to raise a shepherd in this country, who will not bother about the lost, who will not go in search of the stray, who will not heal the injured, who will not support the swollen, but who will eat the meat of the fat ones, tearing off their very hoofs.

16. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, [which] shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

17. Disaster to the shepherd who deserts his flock! May the sword attack his arm and his right eye! May his arm shrivel completely and his right eye be totally blinded!'

17. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword [shall be] upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.