Chapter 11

The Doomed Flock

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,

That a afire may feed on your bcedars.

2 Wail, O 1cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;

Wail, O oaks of Bashan,

For the 2impenetrable forest has come down.

3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ awail,

For their glory is ruined;

There is a bsound of the young lions’ roar,

For the 1pride of the Jordan is ruined.

4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to aslaughter.

5 “Those who buy them slay them and 1go aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for bI have become rich!’ And their cown shepherds have no pity on them.

6 “For I will ano longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will bcause the men to 1fall, each into another’s 2power and into the 2power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will cnot deliver them from their 2power.”

7 So I apastured the flock doomed to slaughter, 1hence the bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two cstaffs: the one I called 2dFavor and the other I called 3eUnion; so I pastured the flock.

8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also 1was weary of me.

9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to adie, 1let it die, and what is to be annihilated, 2let it be annihilated; and 3let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”

10 I took my staff 1aFavor and cut it in pieces, to 2bbreak my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

11 So it was 1broken on that day, and 2thus the aafflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord.

12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my awages; but if not, 1never mind!” So they weighed out bthirty shekels of silver as my wages.

13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the apotter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff 1aUnion, to bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a 1afoolish shepherd.

16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will anot care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

17 “aWoe to the worthless shepherd

Who leaves the flock!

A bsword will be on his arm

And on his right eye!

His carm will be totally withered

And his right eye will be 1blind.”

Chapter 12

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

1 The 1burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

Thus declares the Lord who astretches out the heavens, blays the foundation of the earth, and cforms the spirit of man within him,

2 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a acup 1that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against bJudah.

3 “It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy astone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be bseverely 1injured. And all the cnations of the earth will be gathered against it.

4 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will 1watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

5 “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘1A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

6 “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a afirepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the binhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem.

7 “The Lord also will asave the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of bDavid and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah.

8 “In that day the Lord will adefend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who 1bis feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like cGod, like the dangel of the Lord before them.

9 “And in that day I will 1aset about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 “I will apour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 1the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have bpierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one cmourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

11 “In that day there will be great amourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the 1plain of 2Megiddo.

12 “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;

13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves;

14 all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.

Chapter 13

False Prophets Ashamed

1 “In that day a afountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for bsin and for cimpurity.

2 “It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I will acut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the bprophets and the cunclean spirit from the land.

3 “And if anyone still aprophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall bnot live, for you have spoken cfalsely in the name of the Lord’; and his dfather and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

4 “Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be aashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a bhairy robe in order to deceive;

5 but he will say, ‘I am anot a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for a man 1sold me as a slave in my youth.’

6 “And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds abetween your 1arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of 2my friends.’

7 “Awake, O asword, against My bShepherd,

And against the man, My cAssociate,”

Declares the Lord of hosts.

“dStrike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered;

And I will eturn My hand 1against the little ones.

8 “It will come about in all the land,”

Declares the Lord,

“That atwo parts in it will be cut off and perish;

But the third will be left in it.

9 “And I will bring the third part through the afire,

Refine them as silver is refined,

And test them as gold is tested.

They will bcall on My name,

And I will canswer them;

I will say, ‘They are dMy people,’

And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”