Zechariah 11:4
in Zechariah 11This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter;
KJV
Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
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This verse in Zechariah 11
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
This site's exposition
Feed the flock of the slaughter
on Zechariah 11:4-6
The Lord commands the prophet to feed the flock of the slaughter, sheep already marked for the knife by their own possessors, who slay them without guilt and profit by the sale while calling it blessing. Their own shepherds do not pity them, so the Lord announces he will no more pity the land either, delivering everyone into a neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king. Henry and Gill read the doomed flock as Judah under corrupt leadership in the prophet's own day, the withdrawal of divine pity answering the shepherds' own failure of pity first.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vers. 4, 5.) Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the sheep of slaughter, which those who possessed them were slaughtering, and they did not grieve, and they were selling them saying: Blessed be the Lord, we have become rich, and their shepherds did not spare them. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Feed the sheep of slaughter, which those who possessed them were killing, and they did not repent, and those who were selling them, said: Blessed be the Lord, we have become rich, and their shepherds were not patient with them.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
): Thus saith the Lord my God (Christ called his Father his God because he acted in compliance with his will and with an eye to his glory in his whole undertaking), Feed the flock of the slaughter.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Thus saith the Lord my God,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Feed the flock of the slaughter - This people resemble a flock of sheep fattened for the shambles; feed, instruct, this people who are about to be slaughtered.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thus saith the Lord my God, Feed the flock of the slaughter - The fulfillment of the whole prophecy shows, that the person addressed is the prophet, not in, or for himself, but (as belongs to symbolic prophecy) as representing Another, our Lord. It is addressed, in the first instance, to Zechariah. For Zechariah is bidden, “take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd” Zec 11:15, in words addressed to himself, personally; “And the Lord said unto me.” But he who was to represent the foolish shepherd, had represented the True Shepherd, since it is said to him, “Take unto thee yet.” But He, the Shepherd addressed, who does the acts commanded, speaks with the authority of God. He says, “I cut off three shepherds in one month” Zec 11:8; “I broke My covenant which I had made with all the peoples” Zec 11:10; “the poor of the flock waited upon Me” Zec 11:11; “I cut asunder Mine other staff, Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel” Zec 11:14. But in Zechariah’s time, no three shepherds were cut off, the covenant made by God was not broken on His part, there was no such visible distinction between those who waited on God, and those who, outwardly too, rejected Him. Feed the flock of the slaughter - Those who were, even before the end, slain by their evil shepherds whom they followed, and who in the end would be given to the slaughter, as the Psalmist says, “we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” Psa 44:22, because they would not hear the voice of the True Shepherd, and were not His sheep. They were already, by God’s judgment, a prey to evil shepherds; and would be so yet more hereafter. As a whole then, they were “sheep of the slaughter.” It is a last Charge given to feed them. As our Lord says, “Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son” Mat 21:37. […]
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֹּ֥ה | koh | thus | H3541 → | 577 times |
| אָמַ֖ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהָ֑י | ʾelohai | God my | H430 → | 2601 times |
| רְעֵ֖ה | reeh | shepherd | H7462 → | 177 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| צֹ֥אן | tzon | [the] flock of | H6629 → | 274 times |
| הַהֲרֵגָֽה׃ | haharegah | <the> slaughter | H2028 → |
כֹּ֥הthus
kohH3541 →577 times
אָמַ֖רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
יְהוָ֣הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהָ֑יGod my
ʾelohaiH430 →2601 times
רְעֵ֖הshepherd
reehH7462 →177 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
צֹ֥אן[the] flock of
tzonH6629 →274 times
הַהֲרֵגָֽה׃<the> slaughter
haharegahH2028 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 15:24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
it leads to
- Matthew 10:5–6
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
- Romans 15:8
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs,
- Matthew 10:5–6
Through
Matthew 23:37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…
it leads to
- Luke 13:34–35
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you…
- Psalms 91:4
He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.
- Ruth 2:12
May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”
- Deuteronomy 32:11–12
As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
- Luke 13:34–35
Through
Romans 15:8For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs,
it leads to
- Galatians 4:4–5
But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- Matthew 15:24
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- Galatians 4:4–5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Zechariah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.