Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad

1Open your gates, Lebanon,

and fire will consume your cedars.a

2Wail, cypress,a for the cedar has fallen;

the glorious trees are destroyed!

Wail, oaks of Bashan,b

for the stately forest has fallen!

3Listen to the waila of the shepherds,b

for their glory is destroyed.

Listen to the roar of young lions,c

for the thickets of the Jordand areA destroyed.

4The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 5Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.a Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”a

7So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock.A I took two staffs, calling one Favora and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is perishing perish; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” 10Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flockA who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.a

13“Throw it to the potter,”A the Lord said to me — this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.B a 14Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15The Lord also said to me, “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, and he will not seek the lostA or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy,B but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheepa and tear off their hooves.

17Woe to the worthless shepherd

who deserts the flock!a

May a sword strikeA his arm

and his right eye!

May his arm wither away

and his right eye go completely blind! ”