Zechariah 11

Zechariah 11 opens with a poem of ruined forests and wailing shepherds, picturing judgment on a land whose leaders failed it. The prophet then acts out the part of a shepherd sent to a doomed flock. His two staffs are broken, his wages are thirty pieces of silver, and false shepherds are warned. Christians have long seen Christ’s rejection foreshadowed here.

Zechariah 11:1-2

The poem begins with mighty trees falling. Lebanon’s cedars and Bashan’s oaks stood for strength and pride. Fire and axe bring them down, and even the cypress must wail. The picture is of a proud land humbled, with judgment sweeping from the north to the east.

BSA: consume (“devour, eat”): Fire is pictured as a hungry mouth eating up what looked unshakeable.

See also: Isaiah 2:12-13.

Zechariah 11:3

Now the mourners are the shepherds, meaning the rulers, and the young lions. The lush thickets along the Jordan, where lions hid, are wrecked. Whatever people took pride in has been laid waste, and the leaders cry out over their lost glory.

BSA: glory (“honor, excellence, adornment”): What the shepherds wore as their splendor and status is now destroyed.

Zechariah 11:4-5

God tells the prophet to shepherd a flock already marked out for slaughter. Its buyers kill without guilt, its sellers thank the LORD for their profits, and its own shepherds show no pity. The people are treated as goods to be sold, and religious words cover the greed.

BSA: remorse (“no sense of guilt, not feeling guilty”): The oppressors do harm without any troubled conscience.

See also: Ezekiel 34:2-4.

Zechariah 11:6

The LORD will withdraw his pity from the land. Neighbors and kings will turn on one another, and the land will be ruined with no rescue. The people’s own harshness toward each other becomes the form of their judgment.

BSA: compassion (“pity, mercy, or kindness”): God’s long-held mercy is what he now says he will stop showing.

Zechariah 11:7

The prophet obeys and shepherds the doomed flock, caring most for the afflicted, the poor and weak who truly listen. He takes two staffs with meaningful names. Favor speaks of God’s kindness and protection, and Union of the bond holding his people together.

BSA: Favor (“pleasantness, kindness, beauty”): This staff shows the gracious care God gives his flock. Union (“cord, bond, unity”): This staff shows the binding together of God’s people as one.

Hebrew: נֹעַם (noʿam, H5278) — “pleasantness, delight, beauty.” The name of the first staff means more than a favor given. It describes the sweet, lovely goodness of living under God’s care.

See also: Psalm 23:4; Ezekiel 37:16-17.

Zechariah 11:8

In a single month the shepherd removes three bad shepherds. We do not know who they were, and Christians have read this in various ways. What is plain is the mutual weariness. The good shepherd grows worn out with the flock, and the flock despises him.

BSA: detested (“abhorred, loathed”): The people’s rejection was deep disgust, not mild disagreement.

Zechariah 11:9

The shepherd gives up. The dying will die, the perishing will perish, and the rest will devour each other. It is a sad picture of what happens when people refuse God’s care and are left to themselves, turning on one another.

BSA: devour (“eat, consume”): A people without a shepherd become wolves to each other.

Zechariah 11:10-11

Breaking the staff Favor shows that God is lifting his protecting hand. The covenant with the nations probably means the restraint that kept them from harming his people. The humble who were watching saw it happen and knew that this was the LORD’s word.

BSA: revoking (“to break, to split apart”): The same word is used for breaking a covenant, so this is a deliberate, serious act. afflicted (“poor, humble”): Those who were humble and listening were the ones who recognized God’s hand.

See also: Hosea 2:18.

Zechariah 11:12

The shepherd asks for his wages, leaving the decision to them. They weigh out thirty pieces of silver. It is a shameful insult, for that was the price of a slave gored by an ox. This is how they valued the one who cared for them.

BSA: wages (“my price, my hire”): The pay shows how the people valued their shepherd’s whole labor.

See also: Exodus 21:32.

Zechariah 11:13

The LORD tells him to throw the money to the potter in the temple. With bitter irony God calls it a magnificent price. Matthew later saw this fulfilled when Judas’s thirty pieces of silver, thrown into the temple, bought the potter’s field.

BSA: magnificent (“goodly, handsome”): The word is bitter sarcasm about a cheap, insulting sum.

See also: Matthew 27:3-10.

Zechariah 11:14

The second staff is broken, and the bond between Judah and Israel is cut. When people reject God’s shepherd, they lose the unity he gave. Division follows the loss of his care.

BSA: brotherhood (“fraternity, bond”): God’s people were meant to be family, and this tie is what is broken.

Zechariah 11:15-16

The prophet must now act the part of a foolish shepherd. God will let such a ruler rise. He neglects the lost, the young, the hurt and the healthy, and instead feeds on the best sheep. He is the opposite of a true shepherd.

BSA: heal (“mend, cure”): A true shepherd binds up what is hurt, which this ruler never does. choice (“fat, plump”): He preys on the best sheep for his own appetite.

See also: Ezekiel 34:16; John 10:12-13.

Zechariah 11:17

The chapter ends with woe on the worthless shepherd who abandons his flock. His arm, his strength, and his right eye, his sight, are to be struck. The one who fails to protect and guide loses the power to do either. The warning stands for every leader of God’s people.

BSA: worthless (“idol, without value”): The word also means an idol, something empty that cannot help.

Hebrew: אֱלִיל (ʾelil, H457) — “worthless thing, idol.” This word is often used for idols. A shepherd who deserts his flock is as empty as a false god.

See also: John 10:11.