Zechariah
Chapter 11
Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire consume your cedars.
Mourn, cypresses, for the cedar has fallen. The mighty have been brought low. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been clear-cut.
The sighs of the shepherds echo because their beautiful plain has been devastated. The roar of young lions echoes because the fertile valley of the Jordan has been destroyed.
Sheep and Shepherds
The Lord, my God, said to me: “Pasture the sheep meant for slaughter,
for their buyers kill them and get away with it, while those who sell them say: ‘Praised be the Lord! I am rich!’ And their shepherds hardly think about them a thought.
I will no longer consider the inhabitants of this land; I am handing each one over to the control of his shepherd. Even if their king oppresses the land, I will not rescue this people from their power.”
So, I became the shepherd of the sheep to be slaughtered, and provided myself with two staffs—one I called Favor and the other, Bonds. I then pastured my flock,
doing away with three leaders in one month. I lost patience with them, and they, for their part, were disgusted with me.
So I said, “No longer shall I shepherd you: whatever is to die, let it die; and let what is to perish, perish; and let those who are left, devour each other’s flesh.”
Then I took and broke my staff Favor, to break the Covenant I had made with all nations.
It was broken off that day; and the sheep merchants who watched knew it was the Lord who had spoken.
I then said to them: “If you agree, give me my wages; otherwise, let it go.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
And the Lord said to me: “Throw it into the treasury, this splendid sum at which they valued me!” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the treasury in the Lord’s house.
I then snapped my second staff, Bonds, in two, ending the friendship between Judah and Israel.
Then the Lord said to me: “Take another disguise, one that is suitable for a foolish shepherd;
for I am going to raise up another shepherd, who will care nothing for lost sheep, nor will he search for strays, nor bind up the injured, and will pasture those that survive. No, but he will eat the fat ones and tear off their hooves.”
Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons his flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm wither and his right eye be blind!”
Commentaries
Repatriation.
The Lord unleashes his wrath against the leaders whom he himself had appointed to govern his people, since, instead of serving them faithfully, they devoted themselves to exploiting them for their own benefit. Now, the Lord is preparing Judah and Ephraim for war. Both “Ephraim” and “the house of Joseph” are titles that refer to the vanished northern kingdom, which will also be repatriated and restored (v. 6). This indicates that God intends to reunite the two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, into a single nation (vv. 3c-7).
As in the days of Moses, the Lord will bring back the exiles from Assyria and Egypt (vv. 8-9). The prophet mentions Egypt and Assyria—nations that oppressed Israel in the past—as symbols of the dominant powers of his time (vv. 10-11). In verses 11:1-3, God mocks Israel’s northern neighbors, revealing his judgment upon them.
13:7-9 Sheep and Shepherds.
This narrative presents a symbolic action that represents the breaking of the covenant God had established with Moses and the people. This covenant is symbolized by the “rod Beauty” (Zech. 11:7). The second staff, called “Concord,” represents the union between the kingdoms of the north and the south. The prophet breaks both staffs, symbolizing the end of the Mosaic covenant: first, with the destruction of the temple and the exile to Babylon, and then with the schism that occurred after Solomon’s death (cf. 1 Kings 12).
The prophet, unlike the three corrupt shepherds who take advantage of the flock (Zech 11:8), acts with integrity. He decides to abandon his pastoral work, but not before depositing his “salary” in the temple treasury, a symbolic gesture that represents his dedication and honesty, and shows that he has not benefited from the people. Note that Judas sells Jesus for the same amount of money (Matthew 26:14ff).
As judgment, the Lord allows the people to be handed over to an inept shepherd, so that they may understand from experience what they have lost (11:16-17). This shepherd is the antithesis of the good shepherd described in Ezekiel 34:16-25, where God himself promises to care for, heal, and gather his scattered flock.
The shepherd, who is also the Lord’s brave “helper” (13:7), is a person who is close to the flock and, because he is wounded with the sword, makes it possible to restore the covenant relationship with a remnant of the sheep.