whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!' Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them. whose buyers slaughter them with impunityThis phrase highlights the callousness and moral decay of those who exploit others for personal gain. The Hebrew root for "buyers" (קֹנֵיהֶם, qonehem) implies acquisition or possession, often used in contexts of trade or ownership. Historically, this reflects the practices of ancient Near Eastern societies where the vulnerable, such as slaves or the poor, were often treated as mere commodities. The term "slaughter" (שׁוֹחֲטֵיהֶם, shochatehem) is particularly vivid, suggesting not just physical harm but a complete disregard for life. "With impunity" indicates a lack of accountability or justice, pointing to a societal breakdown where the powerful act without fear of retribution. This serves as a stark warning against the dehumanization and exploitation prevalent in Zechariah's time, urging readers to reflect on the value of every human life as created in the image of God. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’
This phrase reveals the hypocrisy and self-deception of those who profit from exploitation. The sellers, represented by the Hebrew word מֹכְרֵיהֶם (mokrehem), are depicted as individuals who justify their actions through a veneer of religious piety. The exclamation "Blessed be the LORD" (בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה, baruch YHWH) is a common expression of gratitude or praise, yet here it is used ironically. The sellers attribute their wealth to divine blessing, ignoring the unethical means by which it was obtained. This reflects a broader biblical theme where material prosperity is mistakenly equated with divine favor, a notion challenged by the prophets who emphasize justice and righteousness over wealth. The phrase serves as a caution against conflating financial success with spiritual approval, reminding believers that true blessing aligns with God's moral and ethical standards. Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them
The term "shepherds" (רֹעֵיהֶם, ro'ehem) is often used metaphorically in the Bible to denote leaders or those in positions of care and authority. In this context, it underscores the failure of those entrusted with the welfare of others. The lack of "compassion" (לֹא יַחְמוֹל, lo yachmol) is a grave indictment, as the Hebrew root חמל (chamal) conveys a deep sense of mercy and care. Historically, shepherds were responsible for the safety and well-being of their flock, making this neglect particularly egregious. This phrase highlights the moral and spiritual decay of leadership in Zechariah's time, serving as a prophetic critique of leaders who prioritize self-interest over their duty to protect and nurture. It calls believers to seek leaders who embody Christ-like compassion and to hold them accountable to the standards of justice and mercy outlined in Scripture. Persons / Places / Events 1. BuyersThese are individuals or groups who exploit and harm others for personal gain, representing those who take advantage of the vulnerable. 2. SellersThese are those who profit from the exploitation of others, often justifying their actions with a false sense of piety or divine approval. 3. ShepherdsSymbolic of leaders or those in positions of authority who neglect their duty of care and compassion towards those they are responsible for. 4. The LORDThe covenant name of God, invoked by the sellers in a hypocritical manner to justify their unjust actions. 5. The FlockRepresents the people of Israel, or more broadly, those who are vulnerable and oppressed. Teaching Points The Danger of ExploitationThis verse warns against the exploitation of others for personal gain. It challenges believers to examine their own actions and ensure they are not complicit in systems of injustice. False Piety and HypocrisyThe sellers' claim of being blessed by God while committing injustice highlights the danger of using religion to justify unethical behavior. True faith should lead to justice and compassion. The Role of LeadersLeaders are called to be shepherds who care for their flock. This verse serves as a reminder of the responsibility leaders have to protect and nurture those under their care. God's JusticeDespite human injustice, God sees and will hold accountable those who exploit and harm others. Believers are encouraged to trust in God's ultimate justice. Compassion as a Christian VirtueThe lack of compassion from the shepherds is a call for Christians to cultivate and demonstrate genuine compassion in their interactions with others. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the behavior of the buyers and sellers in Zechariah 11:5 reflect attitudes we see in today's society? 2. In what ways can we ensure that our actions and business practices align with biblical principles of justice and compassion? 3. How does the role of shepherds in this passage challenge us to think about leadership in the church and community? 4. What are some practical ways we can demonstrate compassion to those who are vulnerable or oppressed in our communities? 5. How can we guard against the temptation to use religious language to justify actions that are contrary to God's will? Connections to Other Scriptures Ezekiel 34This chapter also addresses the failure of Israel's shepherds (leaders) to care for their flock, highlighting God's displeasure with leaders who exploit rather than protect. John 10Jesus contrasts Himself as the Good Shepherd with those who are hirelings, who do not care for the sheep, emphasizing His sacrificial love and care. James 5:1-6Warns the rich who exploit and oppress the poor, echoing the themes of exploitation and false security in wealth. People ZechariahPlaces Bashan, Jordan River, LebanonTopics Blessed, Buy, Buyers, Death, Flock, Guilty, Held, Hold, Keepers, Owners, Pity, Possessors, Praise, Praised, Price, Rich, Says, Sell, Sellers, Sense, Shepherds, Sin, Slaughter, Slay, Spare, Themselves, Unpunished, WealthDictionary of Bible Themes Zechariah 11:4-5 7130 flock, God's Zechariah 11:5-6 5503 rich, the Library Inspiration of Scripture. --Gospel Difficulties. --The Word of God Infallible. --Other Sciences Subordinate to Theological Science.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. BUT that is not exactly what St. Paul says. The Greek for that, would be He graphe--not pasa graphe--theopneustos. St. Paul does not say that the whole of Scripture, collectively, is inspired. More than that: what he says is, that every writing,--every several book of those hiera grammata, or Holy Scriptures, in which Timothy had been instructed from his childhood,--is inspired by God [330] . It comes to very nearly the same thing but it is not quite …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and InterpretationAnd Again David Says:...
And again David says: They looked upon me: they parted my garments among them, and upon any vesture they cast lots. For at His crucifixion the soldiers parted His garments as they were wont; and the garments they parted by tearing; but for the vesture, because it was woven from the top and was not sewn, they cast lots, that to whomsoever it should fall he should take it. And again Jeremiah the prophet says: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was sold, whom they bought …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching In the House of his Heavenly, and in the Home of his Earthly Father - the Temple of Jerusalem - the Retirement at Nazareth.
Once only is the great silence, which lies on the history of Christ's early life, broken. It is to record what took place on His first visit to the Temple. What this meant, even to an ordinary devout Jew, may easily be imagined. Where life and religion were so intertwined, and both in such organic connection with the Temple and the people of Israel, every thoughtful Israelite must have felt as if his real life were not in what was around, but ran up into the grand unity of the people of God, and …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Good Shepherd' and his one Flock' - Last Discourse at the Feast of Tabernacles.
The closing words which Jesus had spoken to those Pharisees who followed HIm breathe the sadness of expected near judgment, rather than the hopefulness of expostulation. And the Discourse which followed, ere He once more left Jerusalem, is of the same character. It seems, as if Jesus could not part from the City in holy anger, but ever, and only, with tears. All the topics of the former Discourses are now resumed and applied. They are not in any way softened or modified, but uttered in accents of …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Discourse on the Good Shepherd.
(Jerusalem, December, a.d. 29.) ^D John X. 1-21. ^d 1 Verily, verily, I say to you [unto the parties whom he was addressing in the last section], He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [In this section Jesus proceeds to contrast his own care for humanity with that manifested by the Pharisees, who had just cast out the beggar. Old Testament prophecies were full of declarations that false shepherds would arise to …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The First Trumpet.
The first trumpet of the seventh seal begins from the final disturbance and overthrow of the Roman idolarchy at the close of the sixth seal; and as it was to bring the first plague on the empire, now beginning to fall, it lays waste the third part of the earth, with a horrible storm of hail mingled with fire and blood; that is, it depopulates the territory and people of the Roman world, (viz. the basis and ground of its universal polity) with a terrible and bloody irruption of the northern nations, …
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse Remorse and Suicide of Judas.
(in the Temple and Outside the Wall of Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 3-10; ^E Acts I. 18, 19. ^a 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned [Judas, having no reason to fear the enemies of Jesus, probably stood in their midst and witnessed the entire trial], repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. [There are two Greek words which are translated "repented," …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's …
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author
In Isaiah 41:21-23 we have what is probably the most remarkable challenge to be found in the Bible. "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." This Scripture has both a negative …
Arthur W. Pink—The Divine Inspiration of the Bible A Discourse of the House and Forest of Lebanon
OF THE HOUSE OF THE FOREST OF LEBANON. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. That part of Palestine in which the celebrated mountains of Lebanon are situated, is the border country adjoining Syria, having Sidon for its seaport, and Land, nearly adjoining the city of Damascus, on the north. This metropolitan city of Syria, and capital of the kingdom of Damascus, was strongly fortified; and during the border conflicts it served as a cover to the Assyrian army. Bunyan, with great reason, supposes that, to keep …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for Relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World.
John iii. 3. John iii. 3. --Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent. That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God The Covenant of Works
Q-12: I proceed to the next question, WHAT SPECIAL ACT OF PROVIDENCE DID GOD EXERCISE TOWARDS MAN IN THE ESTATE WHEREIN HE WAS CREATED? A: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge upon pain of death. For this, consult with Gen 2:16, 17: And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy.
The fact of Covenanting, under the Old Testament dispensations, being approved of God, gives a proof that it was proper then, which is accompanied by the voice of prophecy, affording evidence that even in periods then future it should no less be proper. The argument for the service that is afforded by prophecy is peculiar, and, though corresponding with evidence from other sources, is independent. Because that God willed to make known truth through his servants the prophets, we should receive it …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Zechariah 11:5 NIVZechariah 11:5 NLTZechariah 11:5 ESVZechariah 11:5 NASBZechariah 11:5 KJV
Zechariah 11:5 Commentaries
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