1Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars! 2Wail, fir tree; for the cedar has fallen; because the mighty stately trees are ruined; wail, you oaks of Bashan; for the dense forest of the vintage trees is no more. 3Listen to the wailing of the shepherds; for their rich pastures are destroyed; hear the roaring of young lions; for the lush thicket of the Jordan is spoiled.

4This is what the LORD, my God says: “Feed the flock marked for slaughter, 5Whose buyers slaughter them without remorse, and go unpunished; and those that sell them say, ‘Praise the LORD, I am rich!’ For their own shepherds do not pity them. 6For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land”, says the LORD, “but, I will turn each of them over to his neighbor, and to his king. And they shall devastate the land, and I will not rescue them from them.”

7And I will care for the flock marked for slaughter - the flock that was oppressed (the poor). And then I took to me two shepherd’s staffs; the one I called “Favor” (Beauty), and the other I called “Unity” (Bands); and I fed the flock. 8In one month I got rid of three shepherds (possibly an allusion to the priests, false prophets, and kings of Israel); and the flock detested Me, and I grew weary of them, 9So I told them, “I will not be your shepherd, nor feed you; if you perish, you perish; and if you are killed, you’ll be killed. And let the rest devour one another.” 10And I took My staff, called Favor (Beauty), and cut it in two, breaking My covenant which I had made with all the nations. 11And it was revoked on that day; and so, the poor and oppressed of the flock that were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12And I said to them, “If you think it good, give me my price; and if not, keep it.” So they weighed out for me my price: thirty pieces of silver. 13And the LORD said to me (Zechariah), “Cast it to the potter” - a lordly price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast (threw) them to the potter in the Temple of the LORD. (MT.27:3) 14Then I cut My other staff, called Unity (Bands), in two, breaking the bond of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15And the LORD said to me, “Take to you again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16For I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit those that are lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy, but he shall eat the meat of the choice sheep, and even tear off their hooves.

17“Woe to the worthless shepherd that deserts the flock! The sword shall cut off his arm, and pierce his right eye; may his arm be completely withered, and his right eye shall be utterly blinded.”