Thirty Pieces of Silver
1 Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. 2 Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down. 3 A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed—a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined. 4 Yahweh my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver every one of the men into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.” 7 So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor” and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. 8 I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. 9 Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” 10 I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word. 12 I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in Yahweh’s house. 14 Then I cut apart my other staff, Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 15 Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. 17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!”
The prophet is told to act out the part of a shepherd, resigns the job, and is paid a sum that values him at the price of a slave.
The chapter opens on falling timber — cedars, cypress, the oaks of Bashan — and then reveals that the trees were never the subject: a voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed. What has come down is a leadership.
Then the prophet is given a role to perform rather than a vision to watch: feed the flock of slaughter Zechariah 11:4. The flock's name is its destination, and the trade around it is described without euphemism — their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished, and the sellers bless God for their profits: blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich.
He takes two staffs and names them Favor and Union — the two things that had held the arrangement together, God's goodwill and the people's cohesion.
And then he quits. I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die. The withdrawal is complete, and the first staff is cut apart to break the covenant with all the peoples. Only one group notices what has happened: the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh's word. The people at the bottom read the situation correctly.
The payment scene is brief and contemptuous on both sides. If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them — an offer that invites them to price him, with the option of paying nothing. So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
Thirty shekels was the compensation set in the law for a slave killed by an animal. They did not refuse to pay; they settled, at the going rate for property.
God's response is bitter irony: throw it to the potter — the handsome price that I was valued at by them! The money is thrown to the potter in Yahweh's house, so the transaction ends inside the sanctuary. And the second staff is cut, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
The chapter then closes on the opposite kind of shepherd, commissioned deliberately: one who will not visit those who are cut off, will not seek the scattered, heal the broken, or feed the sound — but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep. Every duty listed as a negative, and the appetite as the single positive.
His sentence strikes the two organs a shepherd works with: the sword will strike his arm and his right eye.
settled What this mark means