Zechariahchapter 11
17 verses · Zechariah · 520 to 518 BC · The Twelve
Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
Introduction
Zechariah, The Twelve, Zechariah Overview.
Zechariah gave these later oracles after the temple was rebuilt, to a small community in Judah that lived under Persian governors. His hearers remembered what bad rulers had cost their grandparents. This is the darkest chapter in the book, and much of it is acted out as well as spoken. The prophet takes the part of a shepherd hired to care for a flock that its owners treat as meat for market. Listen for the two named staffs, for the wage the flock sets on its shepherd, and for the second shepherd who follows. The Gospel of Matthew reads one scene of it as fulfilled in the betrayal of Jesus.
Context
- Who
- A people being warned what happens when the true shepherd is rejected
- What
- A sign-act in which the prophet plays a shepherd whom the flock rejects and pays off with thirty pieces of silver, followed by a worthless shepherd who takes his place.
- Where
- Judah and Jerusalem after the return from exile, with the opening lament ranging over Lebanon, Bashan and the thickets of the Jordan.
- When
- Undated, and usually placed after the book's dated oracles of 520 to 518 BC, either late in Zechariah's life or in the fifth century BC or after.
- Why
- To warn Judah that rejecting the shepherd God sends brings the loss of His protection and worse rulers after.
Historical context
This is the darkest chapter in Zechariah, and it is performed rather than only spoken. The prophet is told to feed "the flock of the slaughter", sheep bought by traders who fatten them for killing and get rich doing it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
He takes two staves and names them Beauty and Bands. A shepherd carried a rod and a staff; naming them turns them into signs. Beauty stands for the covenant God made with the peoples; Bands stands for the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. He breaks both.
Then the wage. He asks to be paid, and they weigh out thirty pieces of silver. That number is fixed in Israel's law: thirty shekels is the compensation owed to an owner when an ox gores a slave to death. It is the price of a slave, a settled, unremarkable, insulting figure.
God calls it "a goodly price that I was prised at of them," which is bitter sarcasm, and tells him to throw it to the potter in the house of the LORD. The Gospel of Matthew records the thirty pieces of silver paid for Jesus being thrown into the temple and used to buy a potter's field.
The chapter closes with a foolish shepherd raised up in place of the rejected one, a leader who will not care for the lost or feed the healthy, but eats the flock and tears their hooves.
Significance
The first hearers had spent the earlier chapters being promised a coming king. This one says the shepherd God sends will be valued at the going rate for a dead slave, and that rejecting him has consequences: the covering breaks, the brotherhood breaks, and worse leadership follows.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It was a warning aimed inward, at a community that had already learned once what bad shepherds cost them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts. It carries nothing for the special Sabbaths, the festival days or the fast days, so this card names no public reading of chapter 11 and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer.
The opening lament he reads with Jonathan, as the gates of the peoples opened, and the fallen cedar as the kings of the nations (Rashi on Zechariah 11:1:1 and 11:2:1). The flock of slaughter is "Israel, whose shepherds slew them and devoured them" (Rashi on Zechariah 11:4:2). The buyers who feel no guilt are the kings of the nations of the exile (Rashi on Zechariah 11:5:1).
Rashi reads the shepherd's work as Israel's past. "All these are the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, to the prophet" (Rashi on Zechariah 11:7:1). The three shepherds cut off in one month are the houses Jehu and Athaliah destroyed, as 2 Kings 10 and 11 record (Rashi on Zechariah 11:8:1). The staff called Pleasantness is broken in the days of Jehoahaz and of Hoshea, and the second staff when Zedekiah went into exile (Rashi on Zechariah 11:10:1 and 11:14:1).
The thirty pieces cast to the treasury he reads in the same frame. The righteous of Judah are kept "to be preserved for the end of the seventy years of the Babylonian exile" (Rashi on Zechariah 11:13:1). The foolish shepherd of the last verses is a sign for the generation of the Second Temple's destruction, given "into the hands of Esau" (Rashi on Zechariah 11:15:1).
The corpus carries 3 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted here. Radak on Zechariah is cited at 11:1:1 and 11:6:1. Ibn Ezra on Zechariah is cited at 11:6:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here and none is quoted. The verse numbers are the corpus's own.
At 11:1 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 4:5, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 7:5 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 4:2. It also holds Ein Yaakov, Yoma 4:3, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 6:3:6 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 2:8 there. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 2:9:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:7:12 there. At 11:2 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 7:3, Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 6:3 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 30:2. It also holds Tractate Soferim 7:4 there.
At 11:5 it holds Midrash Tehillim 79:3. At 11:7 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 3:2, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 3:3 and Sanhedrin 24a:12. At 11:8 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:38, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:39 and Ein Yaakov, Taanit 1:40. It also holds Ein Yaakov, Taanit 1:41, Jerusalem Talmud Maasrot 1:2:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Sheviit 4:6:2 there. It also holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 34:8:10 and Niddah 47a:13 there.
At 11:10 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 61:7. At 11:11 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 34:11, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 61:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 61:3. At 11:12 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 98:9, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 6 and Chullin 92a:20. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 2:1:3 there. At 11:13 it holds Chullin 92a:19, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 7:7 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:6:2.
It also holds Sanhedrin 24a:13 there. At 11:17 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 2:4, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:13 and Midrash Tehillim 145:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on the Ten Kings 1:14 there.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Zechariah 11:1:1 to 11:15:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 11:1:1 and 11:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Zechariah 11:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/zechariah/11.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane through haftarahUsesForChapter("zechariah", 11) and festivalReadingForBook("zechariah").
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Open your doors, Lebanon: the shepherds howl
Zechariah 11:1-3
Open your doors, O Lebanon: The chapter opens as a dirge over the land, calling Lebanon to open its doors “that the fire may consume your cedars”. The cypress and “oaks of Bashan” wail because “the dense forest has been cut down”, and the shepherds wail “for their glory is in ruins”.
Zechariah 11:1
“Open thy doors, O Lebanon - Lebanon, whose cedars had stood, its glory, for centuries, yet could offer no resistance to him who felled them and were carried off to adorn the palaces of its conquerors (see above at Zep 2:14, and note 2. p. 276), was in Isaiah Isa 14:8; Isa 37:24 and Jeremiah Jer 22:6-7 the emblem of the glory of the Jewish state; and in Ezekiel, of Jerusalem, as the prophet himself explains it Eze 17:3, Eze 17:12; glorious, beauteous, inaccessible, so long as it was defended by God; a ready prey, when abandoned by Him.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zechariah 11:1
“Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called "Massecheth Joma" states, its doors of their own accord opened, and Rabbi Johanan in alarm said, I know that thy desolation is impending according to Zechariah's prophecy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
for the cedar has fallen: The lament runs from the highest trees to the lower ones. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reason that if even the cedars are not spared, the lesser trees cannot hope to be. John Wesley reads the forest as Jerusalem with its tall houses, so the whole land is called to mourn.
Zechariah 11:2
“Howl, O cypress, for the cedar is fallen - Jerusalem or the temple having been likened to Lebanon and its cedars, the prophet carries on the image, speaking of the priests princes and people, under the title of firs, cypresses and oaks, trees inferior, but magnificent. He shows that it is imagery, by ascribing to them the feelings of people. The more glorious and stately, “the cedars,” were destroyed.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:2
“Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen,.... By which are designed the princes, nobles, and magistrates of the land: so the Targum interprets them of kings and princes; see Nah 2:3, because all the mighty are spoiled; which is an explanation of the figurative expressions in the former clause, and in the following; and designs rich men, as the Targum paraphrases it, who at this time would be spoiled of their wealth and substance.”
the wailing of the shepherds: The shepherds are the rulers of the people, and the young lions stand for princes known for their greed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the thickets of the Jordan as the lions' lair, now stripped bare. The rulers lose the very things they prided themselves on.
Zechariah 11:3
“In order to render his prophecy impressive, Zechariah addresses Libanon; as though he was God's herald, he bids it to open its gates, for the whole wood was now given up to the fire. Had he spoken without a figure, his denunciation would not have had so much force: he therefore denounces near ruin on Lebanon and on other places.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Zechariah 11:4-6
The LORD tells the prophet to “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter”, sheep whose buyers kill them “without remorse” and whose sellers thank God. Because “their own shepherds have no compassion on them”, the LORD will “no longer have compassion on the people of the land”.
Zechariah 11:4
“My God - God the father speaks to Christ. Of the slaughter - Appointed to the slaughter. The Jews, during four hundred and fifty years, were a flock of slaughter to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and afterwards the Romans.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:4
“Jehovah-Messiah is the speaker. It is He who threatens to inflict the punishments (Zec 11:6, 8). The typical breaking of the staff, performed in vision by Zechariah (Zec 11:10), is fulfilled in His breaking the covenant with Judah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The sellers thank God for profit made from the flock's ruin. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call this a hypocritical thanks for wicked gain, and they note that the Hebrew has each seller speak for himself. Nobody who should protect the sheep feels any pity for them.
Zechariah 11:5
“In short-sighted selfishness they thought they had gained their object, covetous self-aggrandizement (Lu 16:14), and hypocritically "thanked" God for their wicked gain (compare Lu 18:11). say . . . pity--In Hebrew it is singular: that is, each of those that sell them saith: Not one of their own shepherds pitieth them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:5
“There was a general decay, nay, a destruction, of religion among them, and it was all one to them; they regarded it not. My people love to have it so, Jer. v. 31 . Though they were oppressed and broken in judgment, yet they willingly walked after the commandment, Hos. v. 11 .”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will no longer have compassion: God withdraws His pity. Albert Barnes reads this as the reason they are called a flock for slaughter. Matthew Henry adds that those whom the God of mercy no longer pities are miserable indeed, since they courted their own ruin.
Two staffs, Beauty and Bands, both broken
Zechariah 11:7-8
calling one Favor and the other Union: The prophet shepherds the doomed flock and takes “two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union”. The text leaves unnamed the three shepherds dismissed “in one month”. Keil and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record readings from the priestly, prophetic and royal offices to a purge of rivals.
Zechariah 11:7
“He does as it were say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God! and, since this is thy will, it is mine: I will feed the flock of slaughter. Christ will care for these lost sheep; he will go about among them, teaching and healing even you, O poor of the flock! Christ did not neglect the meanest, nor overlook them for their meanness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 11:7
“The prophetic narrative which follows, differs in its form, in some respects, from the symbolical actions of the prophets and from Zechariah’s own visions. The symbolical actions of the prophets are actions of their own: this involves acts, which it would be impossible to represent, except as a sort of drama. Such are the very central points, the feeding of the flock, which are still intelligent people who understand God’s doings: the cutting off of the three shepherds; the asking for the price; the unworthy price offered; the casting it aside.”
Zechariah 11:7
“Bands - The beauty of grace and glory, the bands of love and peace.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
in one month I dismissed three shepherds: The three shepherds have been read many ways, and no reading is settled. Jerome takes them as Moses, Aaron and Miriam, while Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point to the collapse of authority late in the siege of Jerusalem. The weariness runs both ways, shepherd and flock.
Zechariah 11:8
“Three shepherds also I cut off in one month - Taking this literally, some think the three shepherds mean the three Maccabees, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon; others, the three wicked high priests, Jason, Alcimus, and Menelaus; others, the three last princes of the Asmonean race, Alexander, Hyrcanus, and Antigonus. Perhaps three orders may be intended: 1. The priesthood. 2. The dictatorship, including the Scribes, Pharisees, etc. 3. The magistracy, the great sanhedrin, and the smaller councils. These were all annihilated by the Roman conquest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:8
“Probably alluding to the last period of the siege of Jerusalem, when all authority within the city was at an end [HENDERSON]. loathed them--literally, "was straitened" as to them; instead of being enlarged towards them in love (2Co 6:11, 12). The same Hebrew as in Nu 21:4, Margin. No room was left by them for the grace of God, as His favors were rejected [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 11:9-11
The shepherd resigns his charge with “I will no longer shepherd you”. He cuts the staff “Favor” in two, “revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations”. The afflicted of the flock who watched knew in the breaking itself “that it was the word of the LORD”.
Zechariah 11:9
“Then - After that time of his patient feeding the flock, and cutting off the unfaithful shepherds. Cut off - By the sword or famine. The flesh - Either live to be besieged, 'till hunger makes the living eat the dead, or by seditions and bloody intestine quarrels, destroy each other.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
my staff called Favor: Breaking the staff Favor ends the protection God had given His people among the nations. Albert Barnes reads it as more than chastening, since chastening still kept the relationship. John Wesley calls the staff the covenant with all its blessings.
Zechariah 11:10
“Even beauty - Which was the beauty and glory of them, the covenant of God, with all the blessings of it. That I might break - Declare it null. Christ calls it his covenant, for he was the mediator of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:10
“The Jewish church was now stripped of all its glory; its crown was profaned and cast to the ground, and all its honour laid in the dust; for God departed from it, and would no more own it for his. When Christ told them plainly that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and given to another people, then be broke the staff of Beauty, Matt. xxi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the afflicted of the flock who were watching me: A few in the flock understood what the broken staff meant. Albert Barnes says those who listened and watched knew from the first fulfilment that the whole was God's word. Matthew Henry sees the same group in the poor who followed Jesus while the powerful turned away.
Zechariah 11:11
“And so the poor of the flock that waited upon Me knew - The rest were blinded; those who listened to God’s word, observed His prophet, waited on Him and observed His words, knew from the fulfillment of the beginning, that the whole was God’s word. Every darkening cloud around the devoted city was an earnest, that the storm, which should destroy it, was gathering upon it. So our Lord warned, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is near.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:11
“Note, Christ is waited on by the poor of the flock; he chose them to be with him, to be his pupils, to be his witnesses; the poor received him and his gospel, when those that had great possessions turned their backs upon him. And those that wait upon Christ, that sit at his feet, to hear and receive his words, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, John vii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Weighed out thirty pieces of silver for his wages
Zechariah 11:12-13
The prophet asks for his wages, and “they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver”, the law's price for a gored slave. The prophet “threw them to the potter”. Matthew 26:15 and 27:3-9 draw the sum and the potter's field into the betrayal of Christ.
Zechariah 11:12
“Thirty pieces of silver was the very sum for which Christ was sold to the chief priests; the money, when Judas would not keep it, and the chief priests would not take it back was laid out in the purchase of the potter's field. Even that sudden resolve of the chief priests was according to an ancient prophecy and the more ancient counsel and foreknowledge of God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 11:12
“He speaks as their "servant," which He was to them in order to fulfil the Father's will (Php 2:7). if not, forbear--They withheld that which He sought as His only reward, their love; yet He will not force them, but leave His cause with God (Isa 49:4, 5). Compare the type Jacob cheated of his wages by Laban, but leaving his cause in the hands of God (Ge 31:41, 42).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 11:12
“Weighed - Which was the manner of paying money in those days. Thirty pieces - Which amounts to thirty-seven shillings and six- pence, the value of the life of a slave, Exod. xxi, 32. This was fulfilled when they paid Judas Iscariot so much to betray Christ.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Zechariah 11:12
“And I said unto them, If ye think good,.... Not to the poor of the flock that waited on him, and knew the word of the Lord, and valued it; but to the other Jews that despised Christ and his Gospel: give me my price; or, "give my price" (i); what I am valued at by you, to Judas the betrayer: or the price due unto him for feeding the flock, such as faith in him, love to him, reverence and worship of him. So the Targum paraphrases it, "do my will".”
Cross references
Zechariah 11:12
- Quoted inMatthew 27:9“Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on Him by the people of Israel,”
'thirty pieces of silver', potter's-field fulfillment (attributed to Jeremiah; contested, each view at full strength)
God calls the wage a magnificent price in bitter irony, since it valued Him at the price of a slave. Matthew 27:9 to 10 sees this fulfilled when Judas returned the money and the priests bought a potter's field. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown discuss why Matthew names Jeremiah.
Zechariah 11:13
“Cast them to the potter - Or rather, cast them into the house of the Lord for the potter; all which the Jewish rulers acted over. Then - So soon as I saw what value they put upon me. I cut asunder - Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:13
“Hence Mt 27:9, in English Version, and in the oldest authorities, quotes Zechariah's words as Jeremiah's, the latter being the original author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy. Compare the parallel case of Mr 1:2, 3 in the oldest manuscripts (though not in English Version), quoting Malachi's words as those of "Isaiah," the original source of the prophecy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
brotherhood between Judah and Israel: The prophet cuts “my second staff called Union” in two, “breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel”, and undoes the unity the staff's name proclaimed. Gill and Wesley set the act beside the division of the kingdom in Rehoboam's day. The two staffs are broken, Favor and then Union.
Zechariah 11:14
“That I might break the brotherhood - I cannot, says Newcome, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel subsisted when the prophet wrote it; and that either the wars between Judah and Israel are referred to, (see 2Ki 16:5), or the captivity of the ten tribes, when the brotherly connection between these kingdoms ceased.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:14
“The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the fratricidal discord of factions which raged within Jerusalem on the eve of its fall, while the Romans were thundering at its gates without.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The worthless shepherd who abandons the flock
Zechariah 11:15-17
the equipment of a foolish shepherd: The prophet takes up “the equipment of a foolish shepherd”, a leader failing every duty from “care for the lost” to “sustain the healthy”. The woe falls on “the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock”, and the sword strikes the arm and the eye that watches the sheep.
I will raise up a shepherd in the land: Each duty the worthless shepherd neglects matches a duty a good shepherd owes. John Wesley reads them as seeking the lost, guarding the young who perish most easily and healing the wounded. This shepherd feeds on the flock instead.
Zechariah 11:16
“Their shepherds take no care of the young ones, that need their care and are well worthy of it, as Christ does, Isa. xl. They do not heal that which was broken, which was worried and torn, but let it die of its bruises, when a little thing, in time, would have saved it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 11:16
“I will raise up a shepherd in the land - Some wicked king; and Newcome supposes Hoshea may be meant. See 2Ki 17:1, 2Ki 17:2, and to such an abominable sovereign the prophecy may well apply.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 11:16
“For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,.... Not in the land of Judea, but in the Roman empire; and so not Herod, nor King Agrippa, as Kimchi; nor Antiochus Epiphanes, as others; nor those wicked priests and princes, who governed after the times of Zechariah; nor the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's times, though they are often called fools by him, and were truly foolish shepherds; nor even Titus Vespasian, who destroyed the city and temple; nor Bar Cozba, who set up for the Messiah, and was a false one; or any other of that sort.”
Zechariah 11:16
“This implies, they shall be paid in kind. Such a shepherd in the worst type shall "tear" them for a limited time. those . . . cut off--"those perishing" [Septuagint], that is, those sick unto death, as if already cut off. the young--The Hebrew is always used of human youths, who are really referred to under the image of the young of the flock.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Woe to the worthless shepherd: The Hebrew word for worthless also means an idol, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note both senses here. John Wesley calls such rulers mere images of shepherds. The curse falls on the arm that should defend the flock and the eye that should watch it.
Zechariah 11:17
“His arm shall wither and be dried up, so that he who would not help his friends when it was required shall not know how to help himself; his right eye shall be utterly darkened, that he shall not discern the danger that his flock is in, nor know which way to look for relief. This was fulfilled when Christ said to the Pharisees, I have come that those who see may be made blind, John ix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 11:17
“Woe to the idol shepherd,.... Or, "the shepherd of nothing" (w); that is, no true shepherd, that is good for nothing, for an idol is nothing in the world, 1Co 8:4 and who is an idol himself, sits in the temple of God, and is worshipped as if he was God.”
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The chapter opens with a short lament over Lebanon, Bashan and the Jordan in verses 1 to 3, and a sign-act fills the rest. The prophet is told to shepherd the flock in verses 4 to 6, and he does so with two named staffs in verses 7 to 14. In verses 15 to 17 he is told to take up a foolish shepherd's equipment. The staffs are broken one at a time, Favor at verse 10 and Union at verse 14, and the payment of thirty pieces of silver stands between the two breakings. The chapter closes the first burden of the book's last part, which began at 9:1.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.