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 Loʀᴅ 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 Loʀᴅ, 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 Loʀᴅ; “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 Loʀᴅ.
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 Loʀᴅ 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 Loʀᴅ.
14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff
1AUnion, to
Bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Loʀᴅ 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.”