C2 O 1-3. Threatening.
P s 4,5. Command.
t 6. Reason.
Q u 7-9. Flock. Symbol. "Staves" and "Bands".
v 10,11. "Beauty", "Cut asunder."
Q u 12,13. Flock. Symbol. "Price".
v 14. "Bands". "Cut asunder."
P s 15. Command.
t 16. Reason.
O 17. Threatening.
407-403 B.C.
Zechariah 11)
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. (Occasional fires cleans out the junk.)
2 Howl, cypress tree; for the cedar is fallen (if the cedar is fallen, how much more the cypress); because the majestic ones are spoiled: howl, O you oaks of Bashan; for the inaccessible forest is come down. (No cover, naked, Judgment Day is here.)
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds (judgment begins at the pulpit); for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the rapacious nobles; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
4 Thus has said the LORD my God; "Tend the flock of the slaughter; (They are destined to die if they don't change. They are biblically illiterate. Feed them the truth.)
5 Whose possessors slay them (false preachers), and hold themselves not guilty (they don't even know they are selling their own birth right): and they that sell them say (They don't care about their heritage or God, they would rather listen to man), 'Blessed be the LORD; for I become rich:' (and therefore sell them cheaply) and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them." (After they had been taught and did not listen.)
7 So I [Zedekiah] tended the flock of slaughter (spiritually dead), for the sheep-trafficker (the Kenites [sons of Cain]. They sell people's souls into hell). And I took to me two staves (which shepherds use; the crook or staff, and the club.See Ps. 23:4); the one I called Graciousness, and the other I called Union (Christ our Savior); and I fed the flock.
8 Three shepherds also I sent (they are unnamed) off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. (They were priest, magistrates, false prophets.)
9 Then said I, "I will not feed you: the dying will die, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." (I.e. destroy one another. See v.6.)
10 And I took my staff, even Graciousness (Christ), and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. (Here, tribes. At Christ's death, old covenant [not the Law, the covenant] broken, brought in the new which is a repeat of the old.)
11 And it was broken in that day: and so the sheep-traffickers (the Kenites, they sell God's People) that were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 And I said to them, "If you think good, give me my wage; and if not, forbear." So they (the Kenites) weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. (The damages for injury done to a servant. Ref. Ex. 21:32. This is not the passage referred to in Matt. 27:9. That was spoken by Jeremiah; this was written by Zechariah.)
13 And the LORD said to me, "Cast it to the fashioner (as in Gen. 21:15. 2 Chron. 24:10): a ample price that I was priced at by them." And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the fashioner in the house of the LORD.
14 Then I cut asunder my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 And the LORD said to me, "Take to you yet the implements of a worthless shepherd. (False shepherd, antichrist. Judah and Israel had rejected these, and later on they rejected the Messiah the Good Shepherd. In the future they will accept the antichrist, the false shepherd because they refused to learn and accept His Word. See vv. 16 & 17)
16 For, lo (this looks forward to the Antichrist; for one of his titles is "the idol shepherd" of v.17), I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit the perishing, neither shall seek the straying, nor heal the wounded, nor nourished the weak (from starvation, it can't move anymore): but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. (What kind of shepherd is this? He will deliver those that are biblically illiterate to their own destruction.)
17 Woe to the idol's shepherd that leaves the flock! (for the sequel to this prophecy see 13:7-9) the sword shall be upon his arm (strength), and upon his right eye: his arm shall be withered, and his right eye shall be utterly blinded." (So you cannot see the precious plan of God. See Rev. 13:18. Ezek. 28:13-19.)