Zechariahchapter 11
17 verses · BSBZechariah book hub →
Speaks with:Zechariah 11×4Jeremiah 22×2Jeremiah 50×2Matthew 23×2John 10×2Jeremiah 23×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The dark chapter, between two chapters of glory. Fire devours Lebanon's cedars, shepherds wail, young lions roar over the ruined pride of the Jordan. Then Zechariah is made to act it out: 'Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty,' while traders say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich. He takes two staves, Beauty and Bands, and breaks Beauty, annulling the covenant. Then he asks his wage and they weigh out thirty pieces of silver ('the goodly price that I was prized at by them') cast to the potter in the house of Jehovah, which Matthew 27 sees fulfilled in Judas's blood money and the potter's field.
Context
Prophecy · Zechariah — Zechariah overview
- A. 1–6 Open your doors, Lebanon — the shepherds howl
- B. 7–11 Two staffs, Beauty and Bands, both broken
- C. 12–14 Weighed out thirty pieces of silver for his wages
- D. 15–17 The worthless shepherd who abandons the flock
The outline
A.Open your doors, Lebanon — the shepherds howlvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Two staffs, Beauty and Bands, both brokenvv. 7 to 11
Read vv. 7 to 11 →C.Weighed out thirty pieces of silver for his wagesvv. 12 to 14
Read vv. 12 to 14 →D.The worthless shepherd who abandons the flockvv. 15 to 17
Read vv. 15 to 17 →
The world behind this chapter
Zechariah 11The history
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.
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.
What it meant to them
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.
It was a warning aimed inward, at a community that had already learned once what bad shepherds cost them.
Sources cited
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
- Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (public domain)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Zechariah 11. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 12 · A picture of Christ
Betrayed for thirty pieces of silver
Matthew 26:15→and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.