Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 11:4
Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
4. Feed ] The person addressed is Zechariah. The passage is dramatic. The prophet is represented as personating, inclusively perhaps, as is so generally the case in O. T. prophecy, the long line of Jehovah’s true shepherds, but chiefly and ultimately the Good Shepherd of whom they all were types. Compare, as illustrating the rejection alike of the whole typical order and of the Antitype, St Stephen’s words: “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and the murderers.” Act 7:52. “Hic autem non recitat propheta simpliciter quale mandatum ipse acceperit a Deo: sed in genere docet semper Deum officio boni et fidi pastoris defunctum fuisse erga Judos. Suscipit igitur propheta in se personam omnium prophetarum.” Calv.
flock of the slaughter ] Rather, of slaughter, R. V., i.e. exposed to slaughter, as Zec 11:5 explains. Comp. Psa 44:22, where “sheep for the slaughter,” or “sheep appointed to be slain” (P. B. V.) is literally, “sheep of slaughter.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thus saith the Lord my God, Feed the flock of the slaughter – The fulfillment of the whole prophecy shows, that the person addressed is the prophet, not in, or for himself, but (as belongs to symbolic prophecy) as representing Another, our Lord. It is addressed, in the first instance, to Zechariah. For Zechariah is bidden, take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd Zec 11:15, in words addressed to himself, personally; And the Lord said unto me. But he who was to represent the foolish shepherd, had represented the True Shepherd, since it is said to him, Take unto thee yet. But He, the Shepherd addressed, who does the acts commanded, speaks with the authority of God. He says, I cut off three shepherds in one month Zec 11:8; I broke My covenant which I had made with all the peoples Zec 11:10; the poor of the flock waited upon Me Zec 11:11; I cut asunder Mine other staff, Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel Zec 11:14. But in Zechariahs time, no three shepherds were cut off, the covenant made by God was not broken on His part, there was no such visible distinction between those who waited on God, and those who, outwardly too, rejected Him.
Feed the flock of the slaughter – Those who were, even before the end, slain by their evil shepherds whom they followed, and who in the end would be given to the slaughter, as the Psalmist says, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter Psa 44:22, because they would not hear the voice of the True Shepherd, and were not His sheep. They were already, by Gods judgment, a prey to evil shepherds; and would be so yet more hereafter. As a whole then, they were sheep of the slaughter. It is a last Charge given to feed them. As our Lord says, Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son Mat 21:37. This failing, nothing remained but that the flock would be given up, as they themselves say, He will miserably destroy those wicked people, and will let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits in their seasons Mat 21:41, that is, our Lord explains it, The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Yet a remnant should be saved Mat 21:43, for whose sake the larger flock was still to be fed: and, as our Lord, as Man, wept over Jerusalem, whose sentence He pronounced, so He still feeds those who would not turn to Him that they might be saved, and who would in the end be a flock of slaughter, Death their shepherd Psa 49:14, since they chose death rather than Life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zec 11:4-5
Feed the flock of the slaughter
Oppressed people and their opressors
I.
A duty enjoined towards oppressed peoples. Feed the flock (sheep) of the slaughter. These shepherds, these rulers of the Hebrew people, slaughtered the people. Their rights, energies, liberties and independency are slaughtered, their means of subsistence and advancement are slaughtered. People slaughtered in these respects abound in every state and place in Europe. Feed them–
1. With the knowledge of their rights as men.
2. With the knowledge of the true methods to obtain these rights. Not by violence and spoliation but by moral means, by skilful industry, by temperate habits, by economic management, by moral suasion.
3. With the knowledge of worthy motives by which to obtain these rights.
II. Here is a sketch of the authors of oppression.
1. They are cruel. Whose possessors slay them.
2. They are impious. In all their cruelties they hold themselves not guilty. The greatest despots of the world have ever been ready to justify themselves to their own consciences.
3. They are avaricious. And they that sell them, say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich. A miserable greed was their inspiration. (Homilist.)
A good shepherd
I would give my life for these poor people of the Soudan. How can I help feeling for them? All the time I was there, every night I used to pray that God would lay upon me the burden of their sins, and crush me with it instead of these poor sheep. I really wished it and longed for it. (General Gordon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Feed the flock of the slaughter] This people resemble a flock of sheep fattened for the shambles; feed, instruct, this people who are about to be slaughtered.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thus saith the Lord my God; God the Father.
Feed; O Zechariah, feed, comfort, rule: but rather the Father speaks to Christ the Son, and appoints him who is the eternal Shepherd to feed his sheep.
The flock of the slaughter; appointed to the slaughter by different hands, and for different causes. It speaks of the people of the Jews, who were killed by many hands; during four hundred and fifty years they were a flock of slaughter to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, &c.; afterward to the Romans, who ruined their commonwealth, slew their citizens, and burnt their city.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. The prophet here proceeds toshow the cause of the destruction just foretold, namely, therejection of Messiah.
flock of . . . slaughter(Ps 44:22). God’s peopledoomed to slaughter by the Romans. Zechariah here representstypically Messiah, and performs in vision the actions enjoined: hencethe language is in part appropriate to him, but mainly to theAntitype, Messiah. A million and a half perished in the Jewish war,and one million one hundred thousand at the fall of Jerusalem. “Feed”implies that the Jews could not plead ignorance of God’s will toexecute their sin. Zechariah and the other prophets had by God’sappointment “fed” them (Ac20:28) with the word of God, teaching and warning them to escapefrom coming wrath by repentance: the type of Messiah, the chiefShepherd, who receives the commission of the Father, with whom He isone (Zec 11:4); and Himselfsays (Zec 11:7), “Iwill feed the flock of slaughter.” Zechariah did not live to”feed” literally the “flock of slaughter”;Messiah alone “fed” those who, because of their rejectionof Him, were condemned to slaughter. Jehovah-Messiah is the speaker.It is He who threatens to inflict the punishments (Zec 11:6;Zec 11:8). The typical breakingof the staff, performed in vision by Zechariah (Zec11:10), is fulfilled in His breaking the covenant with Judah. Itis He who was sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zec 11:12;Zec 11:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord my God,…. The Syriac version adds, “to me”; not the Prophet Zechariah, but the Messiah, who calls the Lord his God, as he was man and Mediator, Joh 20:17 for what follow are the words of God the Father to him, calling upon him, and giving him a commission to
Feed the flock of the slaughter; meaning the people of the Jews in general, to whom Christ was sent as a prophet, to teach and instruct them by the ministry of the word; so “feeding” is interpreted of prophesying, by the Targum and Jarchi: and these are called “the flock of slaughter”, because of the cruel usage they met with from their shepherds and owners, mentioned in the next verse Zec 11:5; and because they were appointed and given up to ruin and destruction of God, on account of their sins and transgressions; though there was a remnant among them, a little flock, afterwards in this chapter called the poor of the flock Zec 11:7, who were the special care of Christ, and were fed by him in a spiritual manner; and may go by this name, because exposed to the cruelties of men, and are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, Ro 8:36 these Christ was called upon by his Father in the council of peace to take care of, which he did; and in the everlasting covenant of grace he agreed to feed them; and in the fulness of time he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who were as sheep without a shepherd; and he fed them with knowledge and with understanding.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This section contains a symbolical act. By the command of Jehovah the prophet assumes the office of a shepherd over the flock, and feeds it, until he is compelled by its ingratitude to break his shepherd’s staff, and give up the flock to destruction. This symbolical act is not a poetical fiction, but is to be regarded in strict accordance with the words, as an internal occurrence of a visionary character and of prophetical importance, through which the faithful care of the Lord for His people is symbolized and exhibited. Zec 11:4. “Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the slaughtering-flock; Zec 11:5. whose purchasers slay them, and bear no blame, and their sellers say, Blessed be Jehovah! I am getting rich, and their shepherds spare them not. Zec 11:6. For I shall no more spare the inhabitants of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah; and behold I cause the men to fall into one another’s hands, and into the king’s hand; and they will smite the land, and I shall not deliver out of their hand.” The person who receives the commission to feed the flock is the prophet. This is apparent, both from the expression “my God” (Zec 11:5, comp. with Zec 11:7.), and also from Zec 11:15, according to which he is to take the instruments of a foolish shepherd. This latter verse also shows clearly enough, that the prophet does not come forward here as performing these acts in his own person, but that he represents another, who does things in Zec 11:8, Zec 11:12, and Zec 11:13, which in truth neither Zechariah nor any other prophet ever did, but only God through His Son, and that in Zec 11:10 He is identified with God, inasmuch as here the person who breaks the staff is the prophet, and the person who has made the covenant with the nations is God. These statements are irreconcilable, both with Hofmann’s assumption, that in this symbolical transaction Zechariah represents the prophetic office, and with that of Koehler, that he represents the mediatorial office. For apart from the fact that such abstract notions are foreign to the prophet’s announcement, these assumptions are overthrown by the fact that neither the prophetic office nor the mediatorial office can be identified with God, and also that the work which the prophet carries out in what follows was not accomplished through the prophetic office. “The destruction of the three shepherds, or world-powers (Zec 11:8), is not effected through the prophetic word or office; and the fourth shepherd (Zec 11:15) is not instituted through the prophetic office and word” (Kliefoth). The shepherd depicted by the prophet can only be Jehovah Himself, or the angel of Jehovah, who is equal in nature to Himself, i.e., the Messiah. But since the angel of Jehovah, who appears in the visions, is not mentioned in our oracle, and as the coming of the Messiah is also announced elsewhere as the coming of Jehovah to His people, we shall have in this instance also to understand Jehovah Himself by the shepherd represented in the prophet. He visits His flock, as it is stated in Zec 10:3 and Eze 34:11-12, and assumes the care of them. The distinction between the prophet and Jehovah cannot be adduced as an argument against this; for it really belongs to the symbolical representation of the matter, according to which God commissions the prophet to do what He Himself intends to do, and will surely accomplish. The more precise definition of what is here done depends upon the answer to be given to the question, Who are the slaughtering flock, which the prophet undertakes to feed? Does it denote the whole of the human race, as Hofmann supposes; or the nation of Israel, as is assumed by the majority of commentators? , flock of slaughtering, is an expression that may be applied either to a flock that is being slaughtered, or to one that is destined to be slaughtered in the future. In support of the latter sense, Kliefoth argues that so long as the sheep are being fed, they cannot have been already slaughtered, or be even in process of slaughtering, and that Eze 34:6 expressly states, that the men who are intended by the flock of slaughtering will be slaughtered in future when the time of sparing is over, or be treated in the manner described in Eze 34:5. But the first of these arguments proves nothing at all, inasmuch as, although feeding is of course not equivalent to slaughtering, a flock that is being slaughtered by its owners might be transferred to another shepherd to be fed, so as to rescue it from the caprice of its masters. The second argument rests upon the erroneous assumption that in Eze 34:6 is identical with the slaughtering flock. The epithet , i.e., lit., flock of strangling – as harag does not mean to slay, but to strangle – is explained in Eze 34:5. The flock is so called, because its present masters are strangling it, without bearing guilt, to sell it for the purpose of enriching themselves, and its shepherds treat it in an unsparing manner; and Eze 34:6 does not give the reason why the flock is called the flock of strangling or of slaughtering (as Kliefoth supposes), but the reason why it is given up by Jehovah to the prophet to feed. does not affirm that those who are strangling it do not think themselves to blame – this is expressed in a different manner (cf. Jer 50:7): nor that they do not actually incur guilt in consequence, or do not repent of it; for Jehovah transfers the flock to the prophet to feed, because He does not wish its possessors to go on strangling it, and never has the meaning, to repent. refers rather to the fact that these men have hitherto gone unpunished, that they still continue to prosper. So that ‘ashem means to bear or expiate the guilt, as in Hos 5:15; Hos 14:1 (Ges., Hitzig, Ewald, etc.).
What follows also agrees with this, – namely, that the sellers have only their own advantage in view, and thank God that they have thereby become rich. The singular is used distributively: every one of them says so. , a syncopated form for (Ewald, 73, b), and expressing the consequence, that I enrich myself (cf. Ewald, 235, b). are the former shepherds. The imperfects are not futures, but express the manner in which the flock was accustomed to be treated at the time when the prophet undertook to feed it. Jehovah will put an end to this capricious treatment of the flock, by commanding the prophet to feed it. The reason for this He assigns in Zec 11:6: For I shall not spare the inhabitants of the earth any longer. cannot be the inhabitants of the land, i.e., those who are described as the “flock of slaughtering” in Zec 11:4; for in that case “feeding” would be equivalent to slaughtering, or making ready for slaughtering. But although a flock is eventually destined for slaughtering, it is not fed for this purpose only, but generally to yield profit to its owner. Moreover, the figure of feeding is never used in the Scriptures in the sense of making ready for destruction, but always denotes fostering and affectionate care for the preservation of anything; and in the case before us, the shepherd feeds the flock entrusted to him, by slaying the three bad shepherds; and it is not till the flock has become weary of his tending that he breaks the shepherd’s staves, and lays down his pastoral office, to give them up to destruction. Consequently the are different from the , and are those in the midst of whom the flock is living, or in whose possession and power it is. They cannot be the inhabitants of a land, however, but since they have kings (in the plural), as the expression “every one into the hand of his king” clearly shows, the inhabitants of the earth, or the world-powers; from which it also follows that the “flock of slaughtering” is not the human race, but the people of Israel, as we may clearly see from what follows, especially from Zec 11:11-14. Israel was given up by Jehovah into the hands of the nations of the world, or the imperial powers, to punish it for its sin. But as these nations abused the power entrusted to them, and sought utterly to destroy the nation of God, which they ought only to have chastised, the Lord takes charge of His people as their shepherd, because He will no longer spare the nations of the world, i.e., will not any longer let them deal with His people at pleasure, without being punished. The termination of the sparing will show itself in the fact that God causes the nations to destroy themselves by civil wars, and to be smitten by tyrannical kings. , to cause to fall into the hand of another, i.e., to deliver up to his power (cf. 2Sa 3:8). is the human race; and , the king of each, is the king to whom each is subject. The subject of is and , the men and the kings who tyrannize over the others. These smite them in pieces, i.e., devastate the earth by civil war and tyranny, without any interposition on the part of God to rescue the inhabitants of the earth, or nations beyond the limits of Israel, out of their hand, or to put any restraint upon tyranny and self-destruction.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judgments Predicted and Typified. | B. C. 510. |
4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; 5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. 7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. 8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. 9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. 10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. 14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for judgment Christ came into this world (John ix. 39), for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were, about the time of his coming, wretchedly corrupted and degenerated by the worldliness and hypocrisy of their rulers. Christ would have healed them, but they would not be healed; they are therefore left desolate, and abandoned to ruin. Observe here,
I. The desperate case of the Jewish church, under the tyranny of their own governors. Their slavery in their own country made them as miserable as their captivity in strange countries had done: Their possessors slay them and sell them, v. 5. In Zechariah’s time we find the rulers and the nobles justly rebuked for exacting usury of their brethren; and the governors, even by their servants, oppressive to the people, Neh 5:7; Neh 5:15. In Christ’s time the chief priests and the elders, who were the possessors of the flock, by their traditions, the commandments of men, and their impositions on the consciences of the people, became perfect tyrants, devoured their houses, engrossed their wealth, and fleeced the flock instead of feeding it. The Sadducees, who were deists, corrupted their judgments. The Pharisees, who were bigots for superstition, corrupted their morals, by making void the commandments of God, Matt. xv. 16. Thus they slew the sheep of the flock, thus they sold them. They cared not what became of them so they could but gain their own ends and serve their own interests. And, 1. In this they justified themselves: They slay them and hold themselves not guilty. They think that there is no harm in it, and that they shall never be called to an account for it by the chief Shepherd; as if their power were given them for destruction, which was designed only for edification, and as if, because they sat in Moses’s seat, they were not under the obligation of Moses’s law, but might dispense with it, and with themselves in the breach of it, at their pleasure. Note, Those have their minds woefully blinded indeed who do ill and justify themselves in doing it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. 2. In this they affronted God, by giving him thanks for the gain of their oppression: They said, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich, as if, because they prospered in their wickedness, got money by it, and raised estates, God had made himself patron of their unjust practices, and Providence had become particeps criminis–the associate of their guilt. What is got honestly we ought to give God thanks for, and to bless him whose blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow with it. But with what face can we go to God either to beg a blessing upon the unlawful methods of getting wealth or to return him thanks for success in them? They should rather have gone to God to confess the sin, to take shame to themselves for it, and to vow restitution, than thus to mock him by making the gains of sin the gift of God, who hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and reckons not himself praised by the thanksgiving if he be dishonoured either in the getting or the using of that which we give him thanks for. 3. In this they put contempt upon the people of God, as unworthy their regard or compassionate consideration: Their own shepherds pity them not; they make them miserable, and then do not commiserate them. Christ had compassion on the multitude because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as if they had no shepherd (as really they had worse than none); but their own shepherds pitied them not, nor showed any concern for them. Note, It is ill for a church when its pastors have no tenderness, no compassion for precious souls, when they can look upon the ignorant, the foolish, the wicked, the weak, without pity.
II. The sentence of God’s wrath passed upon them for their senselessness and stupidity in this condition. There was a general decay, nay, a destruction, of religion among them, and it was all one to them; they regarded it not. My people love to have it so, Jer. v. 31. Though they were oppressed and broken in judgment, yet they willingly walked after the commandment, Hos. v. 11. And, as their shepherds pitied them not, so they did not bemoan themselves; therefore God says (v. 6), “I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land. They have courted their own destruction, and so let their doom be.” But those are truly miserable whom the God of mercy himself will no more have compassion upon. Those who are willing to have their consciences oppressed by those who teach for doctrines the commandments of men (as the Jews were, who called those Rabbi, Rabbi, that did so, Mat 15:9; Mat 23:7), are often punished by oppression in their civil interests, and justly, for those forfeit their own rights who tamely give up God’s rights. The Jews did so; the Papists do so; and who can pity them if they be ruled with rigour? God here threatens them, 1. That he will deliver them into the hand of oppressors, every one into his neighbour’s hand, so that they shall use one another barbarously. The several parties in Jerusalem did so; the zealots, the seditious, as they were called, committed greater outrages than the common enemy did, as Josephus relates in his history of the wars of the Jews. They shall be delivered every one into the hand of his king, that is, the Roman emperor, whom they chose to submit to rather than to Christ, saying, We have no king but Csar. Thus they thought to ingratiate themselves with their lords and masters. But for this God brought the Romans upon them, who took away their place and nation. 2. That he will not deliver them out of their hands: They shall smite the land, the whole land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them; and, if the Lord do not help them, none else can, nor can they help themselves.
III. A trial yet made whether their ruin might be prevented by sending Christ among them as a shepherd; God had sent his servants to them in vain, but last of all he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son, Matt. xxi. 37. Divers of the prophets had spoken of him as the Shepherd of Israel,Isa 40:11; Eze 34:23. He himself told the Pharisees that he was the Shepherd of the sheep, and that those who pretended to be shepherds were thieves and robbers (Joh 10:1; Joh 10:2; Joh 10:11), apparently referring to this passage, where we have, 1. The charge he received from his Father to try what might be done with this flock (v. 4): Thus saith the Lord my God (Christ called his Father his God because he acted in compliance with his will and with an eye to his glory in his whole undertaking), Feed the flock of the slaughter. The Jews were God’s flock, but they were the flock of slaughter, for their enemies had killed them all the day long and accounted them as sheep for the slaughter; their own possessors slew them, and God himself had doomed them to the slaughter. Yet “feed them by reproof instruction, and comfort; provide wholesome food for those who have so long been soured with the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees.” Other sheep he had, which were not of this fold, and which afterwards must be brought; but he is first sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matt. xv. 24. 2. His acceptance of this charge, and his undertaking pursuant to it, v. 7. He does as it were say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God! and, since this is thy will, it is mine: I will feed the flock of slaughter. Christ will care for these lost sheep; he will go about among them, teaching and healing even you, O poor of the flock! Christ did not neglect the meanest, nor overlook them for their meanness. The shepherds that made a prey of them regarded not the poor; they were conversant with those only that they could get by; but Christ preached his gospel to the poor, Matt. xi. 5. It was an instance of his humiliation that his converse was mostly with the inferior sort of people; his disciples, who were his constant attendants, were of the poor of the flock. 3. His furnishing himself with tools proper for the charge he had undertaken: I took unto me two staves, pastoral staves; other shepherds have but one crook, but Christ had two, denoting the double care he took of his flock, and what he did both for the souls and for the bodies of men. David speaks of God’s rod and his staff (Ps. xxiii. 4), a correcting rod and a supporting staff. One of these staves was called Beauty, denoting the temple, which is called the beauty of holiness and one of its gates beautiful, which Christ called his Father’s house, and for which he showed a great zeal when he cleared it of the buyers and sellers; the other he called Bands, denoting their civil state, and the incorporate society of that nation, which Christ also took care of by preaching love and peace among them. Christ, in his gospel, and in all he did among them, consulted the advancement both of their civil and of their sacred interests. 4. His execution of his office, as the chief Shepherd. He fed the flock (v. 7), and he displaced those under-shepherds that were false to their trust (v. 8): Three shepherds I cut off in one month. Through the deficiency and uncertainty of the history of the Jewish church, in its latter ages, we know not what particular event this had its accomplishment in; in general, it seems to be an act of power and justice for the punishment of the sinful shepherds and the redress of the grievances of the abused flock. Some understand it of the three orders of princes, priests, and scribes or prophets, who, when Christ had finished his work, were laid aside for their unfaithfulness. Others understand it of the three sects among the Jews, of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, all whom Christ silenced in dispute (Matt. xxii.) and soon after cut off, all in a little time.
IV. Their enmity to Christ, and making themselves odious to him. He came to his own, the sheep of his own pasture; it might have been expected that between them and him there would be an entire affection, as between the shepherd and his sheep; but they conducted themselves so ill that his soul loathed them, was straitened towards them (so it may be read); he intended them kindness, but could not do them the kindness he intended them, because of their unbelief, Matt. xiii. 58. He was disappointed in them, discouraged concerning them, grieved for them, not only for the shepherds, whom he cut off, but for the people, whom Christ often looked upon with grief in his heart and tears in his eyes. Their provocations even wore out his patience, and he was weary of that faithless and perverse generation. Their soul also it abhorred me; and therefore it was that his soul loathed them; for, whatever estrangement there is between God and man, it begins on man’s side. The Jewish shepherds rejected this chief Shepherd, as the Jewish builders rejected this chief corner stone. They had indignation at Christ’s doctrine and miracles, and his interest in the people, to whom they did all they could to render him odious, as they had made themselves odious to him. Note, There is a mutual enmity between God and wicked people; they are hateful to God and haters of God. Nothing speaks more the sinfulness and misery of an unregenerate state than this does. The carnal mind, the friendship of the world, are enmity to God, and God hates all the workers of iniquity; and it is easy to foresee what this will end in, if the quarrel be not taken up in time, Isa 27:4; Isa 27:5.
V. Christ’s rejecting them as incurable, and leaving them their house desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. The things of their peace are now hidden from their eyes, because they knew not the day of their visitation. Here we have,
1. The sentence of their rejection passed (v. 9): “Then said I, I will not feed you. I will take no further care of you; you shall not see me again; take your own course. As I will not feed you, so I will not cure you; that that dieth, let it die (the Shepherd will do nothing to save its forfeited life); that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; that which will make itself a prey to the wolf, let it be a prey, and let the rest so far forget their own mild and gentle nature as to eat the flesh of one another; let these sheep fight like dogs.” Those that reject Christ will be certainly and justly rejected by him, and then are miserable of course.
2. A sign of it given (v. 10): I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, in token of this, that he would be no longer a shepherd to them, as the lord high steward determines his commission by breaking his white staff, and as Moses’s breaking the tables of the law put a stop, for the present, to the treaty between God and Israel. The breaking of this staff signified the breaking of God’s covenant which he had made with all the people, the covenant of peculiarity made with all the tribes of Israel, and all other people who, by being proselyted to their religion, were incorporated into their nation. The Jewish church was now stripped of all its glory; its crown was profaned and cast to the ground, and all its honour laid in the dust; for God departed from it, and would no more own it for his. When Christ told them plainly that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and given to another people, then be broke the staff of Beauty, Matt. xxi. 43. And it was broken in that day, though Jerusalem and the Jewish nation held up forty years longer, yet from that day we may reckon the staff of Beauty broken, v. 11. And though the great men did not, or would not, understand it as a divine sentence, but thought to put it by with a cold God forbid (Luke xx. 16), yet the poor of the flock, the disciples of Christ, that waited on him, and understood with what authority he spoke, and could distinguish the voice of their Shepherd from that of a stranger, knew that it was the word of the Lord, and trembled at it, and were confident that it should not fall to the ground. Note, Christ is waited on by the poor of the flock; he chose them to be with him, to be his pupils, to be his witnesses; the poor received him and his gospel, when those that had great possessions turned their backs upon him. And those that wait upon Christ, that sit at his feet, to hear and receive his words, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, John vii. 17.
3. A further reason given for their rejection. It was said before, Their souls abhorred him; and here we have an instance of it, their buying and selling him for thirty pieces of silver, either thirty Roman pence, or rather thirty Jewish shekels; this is here foretold in somewhat obscure expressions, as it is fit that such particular prophecies should be delivered, lest otherwise the plainness of the prophecy might prevent the accomplishment of it. Here, (1.) The Shepherd comes to them for his wages (v. 12): “If you think good, give me my price; you are weary of me, pay me off and discharge me; and, if not, forbear; if you be willing to continue me longer in your service, I will continue, or, if to turn me off without wages, I am content.” Christ was no hireling, and yet the labourer is worthy of his hire. Compare with this what Christ said to Judas when he was going to sell him, “What thou doest do quickly; be at a word with the chief priests; let them either take the bargain or leave it,” John xiii. 27. Those that betray Christ are not forced to it; they might have chosen. (2.) They value him at thirty pieces of silver. Many years’ service he had done them as a Shepherd, yet this is all they will now turn him off with–“A goodly price that I with all my care and pains was valued at by them.” If Judas fixed this sum in his demand, it is observable that his name was Judah, the same name with that of the body of the people, for it was a national act; or, if (as it rather seems) the chief priests pitched upon this sum in their proffers, they were the representatives of the people; it was part of the priest’s office to put a value upon the devoted things (Lev. xxvii. 8), and thus they valued the Lord Jesus. It was the ordinary price of a slave, Exod. xxi. 32. Making light of Christ, and undervaluing the love of that great and good Shepherd, are the ruin of multitudes, and justly so. (3.) The silver being no way proportionable to his worth, it is thrown to the potter with disdain: “Let him take it to buy clay with, or for any use that a little money will serve to, for it is not worth hoarding; it may be enough for a potter’s stock, but not for the pay of such a shepherd, much less for his purchase.” So the prophet cast the thirty pieces of silver to the potter in the house of the Lord: “Let him take them, and do what he will with them.” Now we find a particular accomplishment of this in the history of Christ’s sufferings, and reference is had to this prophecy, Mat 27:9; Mat 27:10. Thirty pieces of silver was the very sum for which Christ was sold to the chief priests; the money, when Judas would not keep it, and the chief priests would not take it back was laid out in the purchase of the potter’s field. Even that sudden resolve of the chief priests was according to an ancient prophecy and the more ancient counsel and foreknowledge of God.
4. The completing of their rejection in the cutting asunder of the other staff, v. 14. The former denoted the ruin of their church, by breaking the covenant between God and them–that defaced their beauty; this denotes the ruin of their state, by breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel, by reviving animosities and contention among them, such as were of old between Judah and Israel, the writing of whom as one stick in the hand of the Lord was one of the blessings promised after their return out of captivity, Ezek. xxxvii. 19. But that union shall now be dissolved; they shall be crumbled into parties and factions, exasperated one against another; and their kingdom, being thus divided, shall be brought to desolation. (1.) Nothing ruins a people so certainly, so inevitably, as the breaking of the staff of Bands, and the weakening of the brotherhood among them; for hereby they become an easy prey to the common enemy. (2.) This follows upon the dissolving of the covenant between God and them, and the decay of religion among them. When iniquity abounds love waxes cold. No wonder if those fall out among themselves that have provoked God to fall out with them. When the staff of Beauty is broken the staff of Bands will not hold long. An unchurched people will soon be an undone people.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Here is given a reason why God purposed to deal so severely with his people — even because their obstinacy deserved no pardon. As then in the beginning of the chapter the Prophet threatened ruin to the Jews, so now he reminds them that their punishment was nigh, and that they could not be more gently treated, because their wickedness was wholly incurable. We now perceive the design of the Prophet; but he charges the Jews especially with ingratitude, because they responded so basely and shamefully to the singular benefits of God.
He says first, that he was bidden to feed the flock destined to the slaughter (132) Now the Prophet does not here relate simply what command he had received from God, but teaches us in general that God had ever performed the office of a good and faithful shepherd towards the Jews. The Prophet then assumes the character of all the shepherds, as though he had said, “There is no reason why this people should plead their ignorance, or attempt to disguise their own fault by other names and various pretences; for God has ever offered them a shepherd, and sent also ministers to guide and rule them: it is not to be ascribed to God that this people has not enjoyed prosperity and happiness.” There is now no need of spending much labor about this verse, as interpreters have done who confine what is here said to Christ alone, as one who had received this office from the Father; for we shall see from the passage itself that the Prophet’s words are by them forcibly wrested from their meaning.
Let it then be borne in mind, that his special object is to show — that God had ever been ready to rule this people, so that he could not have been accused by them of not having done what could have been possibly looked for or expected from a good shepherd. If any one objects and says, that this could have been said in other words, the plain answer is — that God’s perpetual care in his government had been fully shown; for he had not only himself performed the duties and office of a shepherd, but had also at all times set over them ministers, who performed faithfully their work. Since God then had so constantly and sedulously watched over the safety of the people, we see that their ingratitude was wholly proved. And by calling it the flock of slaughter, a reference is made to the time of the Prophet; for the Jews were then as though they had been snatched from the jaws of wolves, having been delivered from exile. They were then as dead sheep, whom the Lord had rescued; and we also know to how many troubles and dangers they had been constantly exposed. And hence appeared more clearly the goodness of God; for he was pleased nevertheless to exercise care over his flock. Then the Prophet enlarges here on God’s favor, because he had not despised his sheep though given up to the slaughter. The words might indeed be extended farther, as though the Prophet referred to what had already taken place, and they might thus be applied to many ages; but it seems to me more probable, that he mentions here what belonged to that age. Zechariah then teaches us why God was constrained to adopt extreme severity, even because he had tried all things that might have healed the people, and yet lost all his labor: when their wickedness became wholly incurable, despair as it were at length constrained God to exercise the severity mentioned here. This is, as I think, the meaning of the Prophet.
(132) This “slaughter” has reference to the ruin and destruction denounced in the previous verses, or to what was done by “the possessors” who slew them, verse 5. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Zec. 11:4.] The cause of the ruin. Feed] The prophet to act the part of a good shepherd. Flock] Jewish nation.
Zec. 11:5. Possessors] Lit buyers, who think they can sell or slay for their own advantage.
Zec. 11:6. I] Divine pity would not be shown to them; they would be left to civil discord and foreign rule. King] Roman emperor (Joh. 19:15).
THE FLOCK OF SLAUGHTER.Zec. 11:4-6
The prophet here performs in vision the acts enjoined, and becomes a representative of the Messiah, who feeds those willing to be fed, and punishes those who reject him. But by obstinate wickedness, instead of becoming the sheep of his pasture, they become the flock of slaughter, doomed to destruction.
I. The shepherds of the flock were worthless. Not merely negligent, but very wicked.
1. They had no compassion. Their own shepherds pity them not. Sad when ministers have no benevolent feeling for their flockswhen rulers in every department under their control are devoid of conscience.
2. They were avaricious. They bought and sold, to make gain of the flock. They sought only to gratify self and covetous desires. All other love is extinguished by self love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy sink under it [Epicurus].
3. They were cruel. Whose possessors slay them. In ruthless cruelty they ate the fat, and clothed themselves with the wool, and killed them that were fed. Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
4. They are hypocritical. They say, Blessed be the Lord. They are cruel and oppressive, yet profess to be religious! They succeed in ways which God abhors and reprobates, and then thank God for their riches! Sin is most daring when committed and defended under the pretence of piety, and claiming the approval of God in success. Sanctimonious hypocrisy is often displayed in covetousness and self-aggrandizement. Hypocrites do the devils drudgery in Christs livery, says one.
II. The flock itself is given up to destruction.
1. Divine pity was withdrawn. God had often displayed compassionate forbearance towards them, but now he will no more pity the inhabitants of the land.
2. Evil discord rent them asunder. The zealots and factious Jews expelled and slew one another in the siege of Jerusalem. I will deliver the men, every one into his neighbours hand.
3. The land was smitten by the foe. They shall smite the land. The people generally and individually were delivered into the hands of the Roman emperor. With indignant voice they rejected their own lawful ruler, and cried, We have no king but Csar! They were dispossessed of their trust, and their precious inheritance was given to others. Those who should have been protectors became oppressors. Without friends or helpers, they were destroyed as a nation, and live only to perpetuate the memory of their past history, and teach more vividly its great lessons of sin and retribution. Out of their hand I will not deliver them.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zec. 11:4.
1. The wrerched flock. Forsaken and flayed by the shepherds, counted all day for the slaughter.
2. The tender compassion of Jehovah. Feed them, foster and preserve them with affectionate care. O the goodness of God to a nation so shamelessly, so lawlessly wicked. He himself, the Shepherd of Israel, neglected no good office in seeking and feeding them; was careful to raise up shepherds for them (Mic. 5:5), till at length he sent the Man, Christ Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, who came to look up the lost sheep of the house of Israel, whom (to move compassion and affection) he here calleth the sheep of slaughter, until the time prefixed for their total dispersion, by reason of ingratitude [Trapp].
Zec. 11:5.
1. Wickedness declared to be innocent. They slay them, and hold themselves not guilty. They thought there was no wrong in it, and would not be called to account for it. All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord (Jer. 1:6-7).
2. Wickedness claiming God as its associate. Blessed be the Lord. Can anything be more offensive to God than to thank him for the gains of oppression and fraud! To what point does not art reach? Some learn even to weep with grace [Ovid].
3. Wickedness justified by success. I am rich. I have succeeded in business, prospered in family and estate, therefore I must be right. God has blessed me, I may thank him! Success consecrates the foulest crimes [Seneca]. Thus while through covetousness they with feigned words made merchandise of men, they at the same time sought to impose upon the omniscient God, and to put him off with words and forms, in which there was no heart and no moral or spiritual obedience. There could not be a juster description of the leading features in the character of the Pharisees. These were avarice and hypocrisy: their hypocrisy being, as is the wont of religious dissemblers, accompanied with a large amount of ostentation and parade. Mark the manner in which our Lord speaks of them (Mat. 23:14; Mat. 23:23-25).
Zec. 11:6. No more pity.
1. Gods pity is very great. Had been displayed in wonderful ways to his people, and is to us.
2. But this pity is limited. No more. Forbearance will reach its limit, and heavy woes will fall upon those who despise it. Observe the evils threatened(a) Deadly feuds; (b) Foreign yoke; (c) Dispossession of land; and (d) Helpless misery. They shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
Mercy to him that shows it is the rule [Cowper].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Zec. 11:5. Rich. It is success that colours all in life; success makes fools admired, makes villains honest [Thomson]. Let them call it mischief: when it is past and prospered, it will be virtue [Ben Jonson].
Zec. 11:6. Deliver. Such was the fury of contending factions, that all parts of the city and the very temple itself were filled with slaughter. In their mutual frenzy, they burned the very granaries of corn which should have sustained them, and destroyed the magazines of arms which should have defended them. And such was the pressure of the famine, that parents and children, husbands and wives, tore the food from each others mouths, scanty and bad as it was, and, as a subsequent verse hints, fed on the very bodies of the dead, envying them the mean while the cessation of their sufferings [Wardlaw].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
FAITHFUL AND FOOLISH SHEPHERDS . . . Zec. 11:4-17
RV . . . Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah; but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbors hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock, And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then said I, I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them that are left eat every one the flesh of another. And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. And it was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that gave heed unto me knew that it was the word of Jehovah. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them unto the potter, in the house of Jehovah. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And Jehovah said unto me, Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those that are cut off, neither will seek those that are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
LXX . . . Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Feed the sheep of the slaughter; which their possessors have slain, and have not repented; and they that sold them said, Blessed be the Lord; for we have become rich; and their shepherds have suffered no sorrow for them. Therefore I will no longer have mercy upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, behold, I will deliver up the men every one into the hand of his neighbour, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not rescue out of their hand. And I will tend the flock of slaughter in the land of Chanaan: and I will take for myself two rods; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Line; and I will tend the flock. And I will cut off three shepherds in one month; and my soul shall grieve over them, for their souls cried out against me. And I said, I will not tend you: that which dies, let it die; and that which falls off, let it fall off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of his neighbor. And I will take my beautiful staff, and cast it away, that I may break my covenant which I made with all the people. And it shall be broken in that day; and the Chananites, the sheep that are kept for me, shall know that it is the word of the Lord. And I will say to them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my price, or refuse it. And they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Drop them into the furnace, and I will see if it is good metal, as I was proved for their sakes. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the furnace in the house of the Lord. And I cast away my second rod, even Line, that I might break the possession between Juda and Israel. And the Lord said to me, Take yet to thee shepherds implements belonging to an unskillful shepherd. For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd against the land: he shall not visit that which is perishing, and he shall not seek that which is scattered, and he shall not heal that which is bruised, nor guide that which is whole: but he shall devour the flesh of the choice ones, and shall dislocate the joints of their necks. Alas for the vain shepherds that have forsaken the sheep! the sword shall be upon the arms of such a one, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be completely withered, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
COMMENTS
Between the time Zechariah and the establishment of the Jewish people as described in the last section, there was to be another period during which they will feel the wrath of Jehovah. The time of the fulfillment of this prediction is fixed beyond question by the verses twelve and thirteen. The verses are applied very literally to the betrayal of Jesus in Mat. 26:5; Mat. 27:9-10. Therefore, the prediction of the passage must have to do with the hardening in part (Rom. 11:25) which caused Him to take the kingdom from the Jews and give it to the church, A nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Mat. 21:33-43)
The prediction is presented allegorically. The nation is the flock, the Messiah is the faithful Shepherd. Because of their stubbornness, the Shepherd turns from them as they sell Him for thirty pieces of silver. The key is verse ten in which Jehovah severs His covenant relationship with the nation.
(Zec. 11:4-5) As we turn to a detailed examination of the passage, we are immediately confronted with a strange command given by Jehovah to the prophet, Feed the flock of slaughter. The term flock of slaughter is what gives the command a strange ring. We will find it again in verse seven.
The Jews, during the Roman period, were like sheep, bought and sold by their shepherds, i.e., rulers who not only used the people for their own aggrandizement, but actually thanked God for their evilly procured riches and power. They felt no guilt for using the people to accomplish their own ends.
It would be difficult to imagine a more vivid description of the Herods, and the temple priests who served in their puppet government of the Jews.
With the people at the mercy of such leadership, the prophet is called upon to feed the flock as one exposed for slaughter.
(Zec. 11:6) The consequence of the leadership of the Herods and the self-seeking priests of his day was that described here. It became a time for riots, for the guerilla warfare of the Zealots, for false Messiahs and finally anarchy which brought the legions of Rome down upon them in a fury. God delivered them into the hand of the king (emperor) who did indeed smite the land. And, as He warns here, God did not intervene.
When the armies of Titus marched against Jerusalem in a campaign which ended on September 7, 70 A.D., it was the last of a chain of events which included a call by the Sanhedrin to the Roman procurator, Florus, and the puppet king, Herod Agrippa II, for military aid. The tumult in Judea grew into anarchy as a result of the Jews refusal to accept Roman occupation. Conditions worsened, despite frequent changes of procurators by emperial appointment.
The Jews broke up into factions at all social, religious and economic levels. Even the appointment of high priests brought riot.
Romes answer to such conditions in occupied lands was unchanging . . . the swift decisive use of the Makaira . . . the short sword.
The death of Festus in 62 A.D. left the power of Judean government in the hands of Annas the high priest. His calling of a clandestine session of the Sanhedrin at which James, the just, and other leading Christians were condemned, alienated whatever Gentile sympathy may have survived to this point.
At the same time, Herods temple, which had been under construction for decades was completed, throwing hundreds of workers into unemployment.
Shortly thereafter, Albinus arrived to succeed Festus as procurator. Unable to control the Zealots, he was replaced in 64 A.D. by Gessius Florus.
Gessius was a true Roman, relying on brute force. He was greeted by riots in Caesarea of such proportion that hundreds of Jews fled the land never to return.
In 66 A.D. Gessius raided the temple treasury to make up a 40 talent deficit in the tribute demanded annually by Rome. The result was near revolution, averted only by a speech in which Agrippa convinced the Jews that such action would bring about the final utter destruction of the Jewish nation by Rome. (Act. 12:21-23)
Shortly thereafter, Agrippa left Jerusalem. During his absence the revolutionary forces again threatened war. Realizing the inevitable consequences of this threatened action, the Sanhedrin sent for military assistance.
In late summer of 66 A.D. Galles left Antioch for Jerusalem with 44,000 battle-hardened legioneers. He arrived in September, having been delayed by a revolt in Galilee, long a breeding ground for the Zealot Sicari.
By this time, the revolutionaries controlled Jerusalem and Galles was unable to breach the walls.
The rebels not only stood firm, but routed the Romans, killing 6,000 of them as they retreated to Caesarea.
In response to this defeat of Roman force, Nero reacted by sending his greatest general Titus Flavius Vespasian to restore order in Palestine.
Titus arrived in Galilee, re-establishing Roman control there, and went into winter quarters with fifty thousand troops.
Meanwhile, the Jews who had succeeded in holding Jerusalem against Galles, began to fight among themselves and anarchy again gripped the city. Such was the state of affairs when Titus lay siege from Mount Scopus in the summer of 68 A.D.
A brief respite came to the Jews upon the death of Nero in June of 68 A.D. and the period of turmoil in which three emperors in quick succession were overthrown in Rome. This led the army of Hitus Vespasian to decide to place their general on the emperial throne. To accomplish this it was necessary to settle matters quickly in Jerusalem.
Titus gave Jerusalem a chance to surrender. When his offer was refused, the bloodbath began. By July 5 the tower of Antonia, in the northwest corner of the temple area, was occupied by Legioneers. The carnage in the temple itself, where the revolutionaries fought to the last man, was the worst to that time in Jewish history. Over a million Jews died in the siege by the time the last Sicari committed suicide at Massada.
As emperor, Titus Vespasian, issued a decree that the Jewish religion should be ended for all time. The priesthood and Sanhedrin were abolished, the temple tax was now paid to the shrine of Jupiter. A colony of Roman veterans was settled near the ruins of the demolished capital of Judaism.
But it was not finally over. In 131 A.D., one Bar Cocheba, with the endorsement of the leading rabbi, Akiba, was accepted by the Jews as Messiah. The result was a desperate religious war which ended when Vespasians successor, Hadrian, utterly flattened the city of Jerusalem and caused it to be ploughed as a field.
Upon the sight Hadrian erected Colonia Aelia Capitolina, a colony dedicated to Jupiter capitolinus. It was the end of the Jewish state until 1948. It was the last time the Jews would control the temple site until June, 1967.
(Zec. 11:7) In response to Jehovahs command, the prophet fed the flock destined for slaughter. The poor of the flock here is more accurately the most miserable of sheep. (Re: marginal rendering in the Standard Edition)
In this verse the prophets role blends forward into that of the Messiah. As was done by real shepherds, he took two staffs. They are named grace and binders, or unity. (Beauty here in the English version expresses graciousness rather than physical beauty. Bands is an attempt to render for smooth reading a word which means binders.)
The first of the staffs, grace, represents the divine favor of Jehovah in guaranteeing to protect the Jews against outside forces. The second symbolizes the unity which was to prevail between the tribes of Joseph and Judah following the return from exile.
(Zec. 11:8) The response to the shepherding of the post-exilic prophets on the part of the Jews was such that their soul loathed me. It was seen ultimately in the rejection of Him Who presented Himself to them as the Good Shepherd. (cp. Joh. 10:11) There can be little doubt that Jesus had these verses in mind when He called Himself the Good Shepherd.
Verse nine, in which the prophet states his intention not to feed the flock, but rather to let it die, brings to mind two key New Testament passages. One in which Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of her historic failure to heed the prophets (Luk. 13:33-35) and the other one in which He predicted the destruction of the city (Luk. 21:5-6).
The cannibalism described here was fulfilled literally when, during the final days of the siege of Titus, those who held out in the temple area ate the bodies of their fallen comrades.
(Zec. 11:10-11) The symbolic breaking of the staff of grace (beauty) has significance which cannot be overstated. It is cut asunder That I might break my covenant. The Jews came into being as a people because of the covenant. Their national identity was established in the Law given upon their agreement to keep the covenant. (cf. Exo. 19:5-9) Generation after generation, century upon century, they had failed to do so.
Gods patience was mistaken as slackness by this stiffnecked people. We saw how they refused to believe the warnings of the pre-exilic prophets on the ground that Jehovah would not so treat His people. Punished by the destruction of the northern kingdom and the captivity of the southern, they refused to rebuild His temple after their release.
In the intervening years, between the return from Babylon and the coming of Jesus, their concern turned completely from the covenant intended to bless all races of people to fanatic nationalism. The promised Seed of Abraham became, to them, a warrior . . . a revolutionist who would make them masters of the world. When He refused such a kingdom, they convicted Him of trumped-up charges and nailed Him, by the hands of lawless men. (Act. 2:23) to a cross. From this time forward the fulfillment of the covenant and the fate of the Jew per se are two entirely separate matters.
A covenant is always conditional. The failure of one party frees the other from the terms of the covenant. In all justice, God could have terminated His relationship to the Jews many times in the Old Testament period. When the time finally came that He did take the kingdom from them, only the remnant saw the justice of it.
The poor of the flock, the remnant that gave heed to the prophets knew the termination of the covenant with the Jews was according to the word of Jehovah.
(Zec. 11:12-14) The final act of unfaithfulness came when the Good Shepherd appealed to the Jews for His hire, i.e. for that which was rightly His in payment for all He had done for them. Even without the covenant, indeed if it had never existed in the first place, His care, protection and even His chastisement of the Jewish people above the other races of the world should have entitled. Him to their immediate acceptance and undying allegiance.
Instead they betrayed Him, and sold Him for the price of an injured slave. Thirty pieces of silver (about $25) was the amount fixed by the law in compensation for the injury of anothers slave. (cf. Exo. 21:32)
It is no coincidence that this prophecy was fulfilled by one whose chief concern was the establishment of Israel as the ruling world empire. Judas had followed Jesus for three years in the full expectation that He would indeed prove to be another Judas Maccabee, that He would not only free the Jews from Roman rule but establish them as the greatest and final world power. When he saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an ass instead of a war horse to the shouts of children instead of the cheers of an army, when he heard Jesus foretell the destruction of the city which, in Jewish ambition, was to become the capital of the Messianic world, it was too much. He bartered his revenge for the price of an injured slave. (cf. Mat. 26:5; Mat. 27:9-10)
The accuracy of Zechariahs prophecy is seen in the minute fulfillment of it in the detailed disposal of the money paid Judas. Verse thirteen says it was cast unto the potter. Mat. 27:9 quotes the prophecy of Jer. 18:2; Jer. 19:2; Jer. 19:11; Jer. 32:6-9 in recording that the money returned by Judas prior to his suicide was used to purchase a potters field. Act. 1:18-19 mentions this fact also.
Following the crucifixion, and the consequent destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Hadrian. (see above on verse six), the Jews were scattered throughout the world. The unity which had prevailed following their return from exile was thus broken, an historic event predicted symbolically in verse fourteen by the breaking of the second staff called Bands or unity, The result was a nearly nineteen century postponement of the fulfillment of the promises made in Zechariah, chapter ten.
(Zec. 11:15-17) G. A. Smith is quoted by Professor J. E. McFadyen as saying, concerning the crucifixion of Jesus, The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own doom. That is the summary of the history of Israel. The message of Zec. 11:15-17 could scarcely be better paraphrased.
Following the crucifixion, as we have seen (see above on Zec. 11:6) the nation of the Jews became a political football in the hands of the Herods and a series of inept Roman procurators. These, personified here as the foolish shepherd, presided over the final dissolution of the nation into anarchy and final obliteration.
The foolish shepherd may well have been personified in Bar Cocheba and his ill-fared attempt at revolt against Hadrian. The futility of his military activity is well described here in verse seventeen.
Chapter XLQuestions
A Parable of Shepherds
1.
Discuss the symbolism of the forests in Zec. 11:1-3.
2.
Of what is fire symbolic in verse one?
3.
The entire passage (Zec. 10:3 to Zec. 11:3) is designed to point up the difference between ___________________ and _________________.
4.
Between the time of Zechariah and the establishment of the Jewish people as described in chapter ten, there was to be _________________.
5.
Zec. 11:12-13 is applied literally to _________________ in Mat. 26:5; Mat. 27:9-10.
6.
Explain the allegory of the flock and the shepherd in this passage.
7.
Why does God promise to sever His covenant relationship to the Jews?
8.
What is meant by flock of slaughter?
9.
What is described in verse six?
10.
Review the events leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and 135 A.C.
11.
Who was Bar Cocheba?
12.
What is the symbolism of the two staffs?
13.
Who fulfills the picture of the good shepherd in this passage? (Compare Joh. 10:11)
14.
Why, in verse nine, does the shepherd decide to let the flock die rather than feed it?
15.
What was symbolized in the breaking of the two staffs?
16.
Gods patience was mistaken by the Jews as _________________.
17.
In the intervening years between the Babylonian exile and the coming of Jesus, the concern of the Jews turned completely from _________________ to _________________.
18.
A covenant is always _________________.
19.
The final act of unfaithfulness came when _________________.
20.
Instead of paying him his due, the people
_________________ him and sold him.
21.
What is the significance of the thirty pieces of silver?
22.
How does the disposal of the blood money by Judas demonstrate the accuracy of Zechariahs prediction?
23.
What happened to the Jewish people immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 A.D.?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) Of the slaughteri.e., which is being slaughtered. (Comp. Zec. 11:5.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(4-17) The great difficulty of this passage, which is metaphorical and symbolical throughout, consists in the fact that hardly any clue to the interpretation is given to us. Thus commentators are quite unable to agree as to whether the shepherds spoken of are heathen or native rulers. And on this point the whole nature of the interpretation turns. Guided by the language of Zec. 11:6; Zec. 11:10, we conclude that the shepherds represent foreign oppressors. Our prophet seems to have had Eze. 37:16-22 in his mind when he, probably in a vision, performed the symbolical acts of the two shepherds; but he had also Ezekiel 34 in view. In feeding the flock, he actually, though, no doubt, unconsciously, represents not only God, who Himself would feed the flock (Eze. 34:11-12; Eze. 34:15-16), but also that ideal shepherd, my servant David, whom He would set up as one shepherd over them (Eze. 34:23-24). At the same time, he retains his old imagery of Zec. 10:3, and speaks of the foreign oppressors as shepherds. The prophets historical starting-point seems to be the same here as in Zechariah 9, 10, though his goal is more distant.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ALLEGORY OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Zec 11:4-14.
The interpretation of these verses is a very difficult task, chiefly because it is not possible to determine the historical situation reflected in them (for Marti’s view and other theories see Introduction, p. 589). Two things seem to be certain:
1. There is no immediate connection between this section and Zec 10:3 to Zec 11:3.
2. The verses are descriptive rather than predictive. The preceding section looks into the future, this into the past, most probably the immediate past, so that the author may have been one of the actors in the events described. In the form of an allegory he describes Jehovah’s loving care for the people, their ingratitude, his resentment, and the resulting judgment.
He declares that their experiences, pleasant and unpleasant, were ordained by Jehovah for a special purpose. When they disregarded his pleasant leadings he gave them up, temporarily at least, to calamity and misfortune. In the section immediately following the prophet turns again to the future with the promise that Jehovah will once more have mercy upon them. The close connection between the human agent and the divine Master is indicated in the use of the first person by the former, even when the act described must be regarded as having been executed by Jehovah himself. Whether the symbolical acts described were, either all or in part, actually performed by the prophet, or whether he introduces them only for the purpose of making the description more vivid, cannot be determined and is of secondary importance. The act symbolized is the real thing, and it remains the same whatever one may think of the reality of the symbolical acts (see p. 603f).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The shepherd’s loving care, Zec 11:4-6.
4. The author represents Jehovah as appointing him the shepherd of the flock of slaughter, which Jehovah has determined to deliver from its oppressors.
Feed Give shepherding care and protection (see on Mic 5:4).
The flock The community of the Jews (see on Mic 7:14).
Of the slaughter Not a flock already slaughtered, nor a flock that is to be slaughtered literally (compare Jer 12:3), but a flock that is treated cruelly and shamefully in the manner described in Zec 11:5, which undoubtedly led to the undoing of many.
Whose possessors Margin R.V., “buyers.” The former is the meaning of the word in Isa 1:3, but the parallelism favors the marginal reading (compare Amo 8:6).
Hold themselves not guilty Literally, are not guilty; meant ironically, in their own opinion; hence the English reproduces the thought correctly (compare Jer 50:7; Hos 5:15). The buyers, in spite of their cruelty, admit no wrongdoing.
They that sell them The Jews are represented as cattle or sheep that may be bought or sold at the pleasure of the owner. The sellers succeed in filling their own pockets.
Blessed be Jehovah Not only do they not recognize guilt; they even exclaim piously that they are prospered by Jehovah; hence their acts must be in accord with his will.
Their own shepherds This is a translation plus an interpretation; literally, their shepherds. The form of the pronoun indicates that their does not refer to the flock, but to the buyers and sellers.
These two are under the direction of the shepherds.
Pity them not The form of the pronoun is the same as in their buyers, their sellers; hence it must refer to the flock. Opinions differ as to who are the persons meant by buyers, sellers, shepherds. In all probability the first two are practically identical; they are persons who ill-treat the flock; the distinction is introduced only to make complete the picture of the helplessness of the sheep; they can be bought or sold at the pleasure of their owners and can do nothing to prevent it. Some think that they represent foreign rulers, but the exclamation “Blessed be Jehovah” contradicts this view. It seems best to understand all three terms of native rulers, the buyers and sellers as unscrupulous nobles or officials who oppress the people to serve their own interests, the shepherds as the masters or rulers of these nobles, who should have compassion for their subjects, but were indifferent and allowed their underlings to do as they pleased.
Zec 11:6 is another exceedingly difficult verse. Its connection with the preceding verse is not clear, and Zec 11:7 would form a more suitable continuation of Zec 11:5. Most recent commentators omit it as a later gloss. If it is original, it is best interpreted as a parenthetical sentence introduced by the author to explain the appointment of the shepherd. Jehovah was about to execute judgment upon the whole earth, and during the crisis he desired to have his people in the care of a capable leader.
Inhabitants of the land Better, of the earth; for the men, which follows, is used ordinarily of all mankind; Jehovah intended to shake the nations (Hag 2:6-7).
The men Better, mankind, or, the human race; with special reference, perhaps, to the surrounding nations that have proved hostile to the Jews.
Deliver every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king The threat is one of anarchy and civil strife among the nations of the earth and of oppression by tyrannical kings. It is not improbable, however, that we should read, with a change of a single vowel point, “into the hand of his shepherd” instead of “into his neighbor’s hand”; the whole clause, “into the hand of his shepherd and into the hand of his king.” Then the thought will be, while the Jews are to have a good shepherd, the nations of the earth are to be placed under the rule of tyrannical shepherds (rulers) and kings.
They The tyrannical rulers and kings.
I will not deliver Jehovah will allow the nations of the earth to be destroyed. No further reference is made to the fate of the nations, and in the succeeding verses the author returns to the shepherd appointed over the Jews.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Zechariah Is To Feed The Flock Doomed For Slaughter ( Zec 11:4-6 ).
There is an interesting contrast here between the false shepherds of Zechariah and the true shepherd of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 34 YHWH Himself will save the sheep, here He hands them over to the false shepherds. In Eze 34:23 YHWH promises to raise up a shepherd who will feed them, here He says that he will raise up shepherds who are not concerned for the welfare of the sheep. In Eze 34:25 YHWH promises to establish a covenant of peace with His people, here in Zec 11:10; Zec 11:14 He breaks His covenant of peace and union with them. In Eze 34:26-31 great blessings are promised for His people, here in Zec 11:16 doom and desolation is threatened. In Ezekiel the new age is in mind, here there is simply a grim period ahead. In Eze 37:19 the two sticks of Israel and Judah are brought together, here the two staffs representing the covenant and the union between Israel and Judah are broken. It is difficult not to see this as deliberate. It is Zechariah’s sad warning that the refusal of the people to respond to God’s true shepherd can only delay the blessing that He has been promising.
Zec 11:4-6
‘Thus says YHWH my God, “Feed the flock doomed to slaughter, whose owners slay them and hold themselves not guilty, and those who sell them say, ‘I am rich’, and their own shepherds do not spare them. For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land,” says YHWH, “but lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand and into the hand of his king, and they will smite the land and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”.’
The situation as portrayed in the early chapters has changed. Zechariah is no longer listened to with reverence and now he describes a power struggle that is taking place between himself and other members of the prophetic guild (Zec 11:4-14). And it is one that in the end he loses because the people choose to follow the false prophets. It was a foretaste of what will happen to theGreater Shepherd Who was to come.
Because there has not been a final proper response to God Zechariah is now told that he must act as shepherd to the people while he may, for the future is gloomy and the people are doomed to slaughter because they are following the false shepherds. Apart from Zechariah there is no other who shepherds them properly. Their own rulers, priests and prophets, pictured as owners of the flock, have betrayed them. They are acting in such a way as will only bring about their deaths and slavery. Their own shepherds have no pity on them. And yet they follow them and refuse to listen to the lone voice of Zechariah as he pleads with them.
The result is that God Himself will not act on their behalf. He also will no more have pity on them. They will be beset by their neighbours and their neighbour’s governors, and the land will be smitten and God will not deliver them.
Yet His mercy is shown in that He continues to send to them a true prophet, Zechariah, if only they will listen. Had they responded there would have been mercy.
‘The flock doomed to slaughter.’ Literally ‘the flock of slaughter.’ A vivid picture of a flock set aside for the butcher’s knife because they have been selected as the next to fill the butchers’ shops.
So the hopes that had been previously raised have been quenched. The leaders have failed. The people have not responded. The result is that further reversals must take place before the final triumph is achieved. This is the story of history. God will only act when men respond. Although paradoxically that response itself is the result of God’s action.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Good Shepherds
v. 4. Thus saith the Lord, my God, v. 5. whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty, v. 6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, v. 7. And I will feed the flock of the slaughter, v. 8. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month, v. 9. Then said I, I will not feed you, v. 10. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, v. 11. And it was broken in that day, v. 12. And I said unto them, v. 13. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, v. 14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Zec 11:4. Feed the flock of the slaughter Or the flock prepared for slaughter. That flock is so described in the next verse, as to make it evident that a flock not of sheep, but of men, is meant, and consequently an allegorical shepherd. Zechariah was not only of a priestly family, but one of the chief priests; supposing him to be, as it is most likely he was, the person mentioned Neh 12:16. It belonged therefore to his station and office to take upon himself the guidance and instruction of the people. For, as his contemporary Malachi observes, ch. Zec 2:7. The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth. Compare Deu 30:10; Deu 33:10. Jer 18:18; Jer 18:23. The people are denominated the flock of slaughter, because they were devoted to ruin by following the mischievous counsels of their false teachers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; 5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not. 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. 7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock: and I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. 8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. 9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, and let the rest eat everyone the flesh of another. 10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that; it was the word of the Lord.
The flock of the slaughter, plainly means the Lord’s people. And as the great ones of the earth oppress them, they are very properly so called. But how sweet and gracious are the expressions of the Lord Jesus. Though their own shepherds regard them not, yet Jesus will. Every oppressed child of God should remember this! Various have been the opinion of learned men, concerning what is meant by the two staves; Beauty and Bands. It hath struck me since I began these observations upon the passage, that by Beauty is meant the Gospel, and by Bands, is meant the Law. For surely a Gospel that proclaims mercy, pardon, and peace, through another’s righteousness, and not our own, must be beautiful and engaging to a soul truly convinced of sin, and conscious that he hath no righteousness in him. While, on the other hand, the law, which is the ministration of death, may always be called bands, for we are by nature, and by practice, bound in the chains of it all our lives long, until Christ hath made us free. Reader! can you truly say, and say it with full assurance of faith: Truly, Lord, I am thy servant, thou hast loosed my bonds. Psa 116:16 . By breaking the staff Beauty, is not meant the Lord’s breaking off connection with his people, or lessening the sweet effects of the blessed gospel; but it may mean with-drawings, hidings, corrections, and the like. Psa 89:30-35 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Zec 11:4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
Ver. 4. Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of slaughter ] So lately pulled out of the jaws of those lions, Zec 11:3 cf. Amo 3:12 , and yet destined to destruction by the Romans, those Raptores Orbis robbers of the world, (their former preservation being but a reservation to future mischief), for their desperate obstinace and incorrigibility.
Feed them
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Zec 11:4-6
4Thus says the LORD my God, Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter. 5Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land, declares the LORD; but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power.
Zec 11:4-14 This section deals with two kinds of shepherds (i.e., leaders), the coming of a godly ruler who is rejected and replaced by wicked rulers (cf. Zec 11:4-6; Zec 11:15-17). Zec 11:7-14 refer to the good shepherd, the Messiah (YHWH’s personal representative). Jesus picked up on this theme in His discourse on He, Himself being the Good Shepherd in John 10.
Zec 11:4 Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter Pasture (BDB 944 I, KB 1258). This is a Qal IMPERATIVE (i.e., shepherd). The flock seems to refer to God’s people (cf. Zec 11:6; Psa 44:22; Jer 12:1-3). This phrase does not imply that these are faithful to YHWH, but that they are exploited by their own leaders or foreigners (same ambiguity as Zec 10:3 -b).
Zec 11:5 Those who buy them slay them A Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE (BDB 888, KB 1111) is followed by a Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 246, KB 255). This is the allusion of the new owners of the sheep who use them for food (not wool). This may typify careless and uncompassionate acts of merchants or governmental leaders (cf. Zec 10:3).
Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich This seems to be a sarcastic comment by Jewish leaders praising God for their ill-gotten gain from the exploitation of the poor and under privileged. Deuteronomy 27-29 was often interpreted in such a way that wealth equaled God’s blessing!
their own shepherds have no pity on them Here shepherds means leaders. That which characterizes God (compassion) does not characterize these Jewish leaders.
Zec 11:6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land This language is similar to Hos 1:6-9; Hos 2:1-23. Hosea was told to live his life (i.e., marry a prostitute) in order to model YHWH’s love for faithless Israel. Zechariah, or the future Messiah, is also modeling YHWH’s attitudes! The Jewish leaders were to model God’s leadership.
I will cause Notice another characteristic of apocalyptic literature is the God is totally sovereign motif (I will three times).
each into another’s power and into the power of his king The problem of human leadership is that because of the fall it is incapable of the selfless administration of power and authority.
The NASB translates this Hebrew idiom into the hand of (twice) as into the power.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Thus saith = Thus hath said the Lord. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Feed = Tend. Zechariah is to represent a good shepherd, and is sent to the People whose rulers destroyed them (verses: Zec 11:5, Zec 11:16).
of = exposed to, or destined for slaughter. Genitive of Relation App-17. Compare Rom 8:36.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Zec 11:4. Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
This is a deep prophecy. It may be interpreted concerning many events, but I think it primarily refers to the departure of the people of Israel from God, and their rejection of Christ. It has to do with the first coming of Christ, and the way in which they cast off the great Shepherd, and he cast them off, so that Israel was simply spoiled and scattered throughout the whole earth. The teachers of those days were false to their service.
Zec 11:5. Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not.
They bound heavy burdens upon them, grievous to be borne, but they touched them not with one of their fingers. The Scribes and Pharisees were false shepherds, and had clean departed from God in the day of our Lord.
Zec 11:6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
Christ gathered a few round him who were his true sheep, who knew his voice, and these he fed; they were the flock of the slaughter. They, most of them, died a martyr death, and they were the poor and despised among men.
Zec 11:7. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
The Beauty is the loving-kindness of the presence of God; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. By Bands we understand binders, the unity of the flock; that which kept the people together. These are the two staves the two staves with which the good shepherd blessed his flock when he is with them.
Zec 11:8. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
There is a mutual loathing between God and ungodly men. They, to whom Christ came, were of this character; they loathed him. and he could not endure them. See how he cried to them, Woe unto you, Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites; woe unto you teachers of the law. There was a solemn division between them, and the people themselves called after their shepherds, and we are like them, so that they took up stones again to stone him, and he, with many tears, was forced to pronounce woe upon them.
Zec 11:9-11. Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
The national covenant, as far as Israel was concerned, was broken, and they were cast off and driven from their land. Oh! the sufferings of Israel in those days! The stories were enough to melt the heart of a stone. The great sins of the ages, and, worst of all, the great sin of rejecting Christ, brought upon that people such a doom that we know not where to find its parallel in all the annals of mankind. Still, notice there was always a people that the great Shepherd looked after; so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord.
Zec 11:12-13. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and it not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter; a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
You know how this came to pass, and literally came to pass in that day, when the betrayer cast down the price of his blood, and they bought therewith the potters field to bury strangers in. This is what Israel did with her great Shepherd with the Messiah.
Zec 11:14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
They became a scattered people henceforth.
Zec 11:15. And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
Hard clubs and swords, and such like things, unfit for sheep.
Zec 11:16-17. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
These were the shepherds to which Israel was left when they rejected Christ. They did nothing for the people; they were a curse to them, and they themselves were blinded; their own power failed. Well now, what took place actually with regard to Israel takes place with regard to any church that casts off Christ and his teaching; it becomes an anti-Christ; and all has surely been fulfilled in the great anti-Christian system, which is not dead even yet, which destroys and injures; and this day its arm is clean dried up, and its right eye is utterly dimmed. We have a terrible description of what God will do to these who turn away from him.
This exposition consisted of readings from Zec 11:4-17; Zec 12:1-4.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Zec 11:4-17
FAITHFUL & FOOLISH SHEPHERDS . . . Zec 11:4-17
Between the time Zechariah and the establishment of the Jewish people as described in the last section, there was to be another period during which they will feel the wrath of Jehovah. The time of the fulfillment of this prediction is fixed beyond question by the verses twelve and thirteen. The verses are applied very literally to the betrayal of Jesus in Mat 26:5; Mat 27:9-10. Therefore, the prediction of the passage must have to do with the hardening in part (Rom 11:25) which caused Him to take the kingdom from the Jews and give it to the church, A nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Mat 21:33-43)
The prediction is presented allegorically. The nation is the flock, the Messiah is the faithful Shepherd. Because of their stubbornness, the Shepherd turns from them as they sell Him for thirty pieces of silver. The key is verse ten in which Jehovah severs His covenant relationship with the nation.
(Zec 11:4-5) As we turn to a detailed examination of the passage, we are immediately confronted with a strange command given by Jehovah to the prophet, Feed the flock of slaughter. The term flock of slaughter is what gives the command a strange ring. We will find it again in verse seven.
Zerr: Zec 11:4 is a prediction that the Lord would feed the flock that had been slaughtered (mistreated) by the cruel and self-righteous princes among the Jews. The possessors and shepherds of Zec 11:5 means the wicked rulers and princes among the Jewish people who imposed on the common population.
The Jews, during the Roman period, were like sheep, bought and sold by their shepherds, i.e., rulers who not only used the people for their own aggrandizement, but actually thanked God for their evilly procured riches and power. They felt no guilt for using the people to accomplish their own ends.
It would be difficult to imagine a more vivid description of the Herods, and the temple priests who served in their puppet government of the Jews.
With the people at the mercy of such leadership, the prophet is called upon to feed the flock as one exposed for slaughter.
(Zec 11:6) The consequence of the leadership of the Herods and the self-seeking priests of his day was that described here. It became a time for riots, for the guerilla warfare of the Zealots, for false Messiahs and finally anarchy which brought the legions of Rome down upon them in a fury. God delivered them into the hand of the king (emperor) who did indeed smite the land. And, as He warns here, God did not intervene.
Zerr: Zec 11:6 predicts that God would plunge the entire Jewish nation into confusion and revolution. The common people were to suffer along with the leaders because they did not resist the corrupt prophets and priests. (See Jer 5:31.)
When the armies of Titus marched against Jerusalem in a campaign which ended on September 7, 70 A.D., it was the last of a chain of events which included a call by the Sanhedrin to the Roman procurator, Florus, and the puppet king, Herod Agrippa II, for military aid. The tumult in Judea grew into anarchy as a result of the Jews refusal to accept Roman occupation. Conditions worsened, despite frequent changes of procurators by emperial appointment. The Jews broke up into factions at all social, religious and economic levels. Even the appointment of high priests brought riot. Romes answer to such conditions in occupied lands was unchanging . . . the swift decisive use of the Makaira . . . the short sword.
The death of Festus in 62 A.D. left the power of Judean government in the hands of Annas the high priest. His calling of a clandestine session of the Sanhedrin at which James, the just, and other leading Christians were condemned, alienated whatever Gentile sympathy may have survived to this point. At the same time, Herods temple, which had been under construction for decades was completed, throwing hundreds of workers into unemployment. Shortly thereafter, Albinus arrived to succeed Festus as procurator. Unable to control the Zealots, he was replaced in 64 A.D. by Gessius Florus. Gessius was a true Roman, relying on brute force. He was greeted by riots in Caesarea of such proportion that hundreds of Jews fled the land never to return.
In 66 A.D. Gessius raided the temple treasury to make up a 40 talent deficit in the tribute demanded annually by Rome. The result was near revolution, averted only by a speech in which Agrippa convinced the Jews that such action would bring about the final utter destruction of the Jewish nation by Rome. (Act 12:21-23) Shortly thereafter, Agrippa left Jerusalem. During his absence the revolutionary forces again threatened war. Realizing the inevitable consequences of this threatened action, the Sanhedrin sent for military assistance.
In late summer of 66 A.D. Galles left Antioch for Jerusalem with 44,000 battle-hardened legioneers. He arrived in September, having been delayed by a revolt in Galilee, long a breeding ground for the Zealot Sicari. By this time, the revolutionaries controlled Jerusalem and Galilee and was unable to breach the walls. The rebels not only stood firm, but routed the Romans, killing 6,000 of them as they retreated to Caesarea. In response to this defeat of Roman force, Nero reacted by sending his greatest general Titus Flavius Vespasian to restore order in Palestine. Titus arrived in Galilee, re-establishing Roman control there, and went into winter quarters with fifty thousand troops. Meanwhile, the Jews who had succeeded in holding Jerusalem against Galles, began to fight among themselves and anarchy again gripped the city. Such was the state of affairs when Titus lay siege from Mount Scopus in the summer of 68 A.D.
A brief respite came to the Jews upon the death of Nero in June of 68 A.D. and the period of turmoil in which three emperors in quick succession were overthrown in Rome. This led the army of Hitus Vespasian to decide to place their general on the emperial throne. To accomplish this it was necessary to settle matters quickly in Jerusalem. Titus gave Jerusalem a chance to surrender. When his offer was refused, the bloodbath began. By July 5 the tower of Antonia, in the northwest corner of the temple area, was occupied by Legioneers. The carnage in the temple itself, where the revolutionaries fought to the last man, was the worst to that time in Jewish history. Over a million Jews died in the siege by the time the last Sicari committed suicide at Massada.
As emperor, Titus Vespasian, issued a decree that the Jewish religion should be ended for all time. The priesthood and Sanhedrin were abolished, the temple tax was now paid to the shrine of Jupiter. A colony of Roman veterans was settled near the ruins of the demolished capital of Judaism. But it was not finally over. In 131 A.D., one Bar Cocheba, with the endorsement of the leading rabbi, Akiba, was accepted by the Jews as Messiah. The result was a desperate religious war which ended when Vespasians successor, Hadrian, utterly flattened the city of Jerusalem and caused it to be ploughed as a field. Upon the sight Hadrian erected Colonia Aelia Capitolina, a colony dedicated to Jupiter capitolinus. It was the end of the Jewish state until 1948. It was the last time the Jews would control the temple site until June, 1967.
(Zec 11:7) In response to Jehovahs command, the prophet fed the flock destined for slaughter. The poor of the flock here is more accurately the most miserable of sheep. (Re: marginal rendering in the Standard Edition) In Zec 11:7 the prophets role blends forward into that of the Messiah. As was done by real shepherds, he took two staffs. They are named grace and binders, or unity. (Beauty here in the English version expresses graciousness rather than physical beauty. Bands is an attempt to render for smooth reading a word which means binders.) The first of the staffs, grace, represents the divine favor of Jehovah in guaranteeing to protect the Jews against outside forces. The second symbolizes the unity which was to prevail between the tribes of Joseph and Judah following the return from exile.
Zerr: God decided to take over the feeding of the flock that had been so neglected by the shepherds (Zec 11:7). And in order to make the proper progress it was necessary to make a change in the whole system of the feeding by disposing of the unfaithful feeders, or at least by taking charge of their work and directing it according to the new program (the system under Christ). The things the Lord was going to dispose of are termed Beauty and Bands. The first means “agreeableness and the second is defined “a district or inheritance. The first stands for the Sinaite covenant as a document or constitution as a basis for some form of government. The second stands for the religious nationalism that resulted from the aforesaid constitution.
(Zec 11:8-9) The response to the shepherding of the post-exilic prophets on the part of the Jews was such that their soul loathed me. It was seen ultimately in the rejection of Him Who presented Himself to them as the Good Shepherd. (cp. Joh 10:11) There can be little doubt that Jesus had these verses in mind when He called Himself the Good Shepherd. Zec 11:9, in which the prophet states his intention not to feed the flock, but rather to let it die, brings to mind two key New Testament passages. One in which Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of her historic failure to heed the prophets (Luk 13:33-35) and the other one in which He predicted the destruction of the city (Luk 21:5-6). The cannibalism described here was fulfilled literally when, during the final days of the siege of Titus, those who held out in the temple area ate the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Zerr: This paragraph (Zec 11:8-9) should be regarded as a parenthetic statement inserted to indicate Gods abhorrence of his unfaithful feeders. Some of them were so objectionable that He disposed of three of them in one month. The prophet will then resume the general prophecy to show what the new Shepherd was going to do about it.
(Zec 11:10-11) The symbolic breaking of the staff of grace (beauty) has significance which cannot be overstated. It is cut asunder That I might break my covenant. The Jews came into being as a people because of the covenant. Their national identity was established in the Law given upon their agreement to keep the covenant. (cf. Exo 19:5-9) Generation after generation, century upon century, they had failed to do so.
Zerr: The first thing he did was to break the staff called Beauty (Zec 11:10) which means that the Sinaite covenant was to be canceled. After the old law was canceled, the common Jews finally learned that they would no longer be dependent on the self-righteous leaders (Zec 11:11) for spiritual guidance.
Gods patience was mistaken as slackness by this stiff-necked people. We saw how they refused to believe the warnings of the pre-exilic prophets on the ground that Jehovah would not so treat His people. Punished by the destruction of the northern kingdom and the captivity of the southern, they refused to rebuild His temple after their release.
In the intervening years, between the return from Babylon and the coming of Jesus, their concern turned completely from the covenant intended to bless all races of people to fanatic nationalism. The promised Seed of Abraham became, to them, a warrior . . . a revolutionist who would make them masters of the world. When He refused such a kingdom, they convicted Him of trumped-up charges and nailed Him, by the hands of lawless men. (Act 2:23) to a cross. From this time forward the fulfillment of the covenant and the fate of the Jew per se are two entirely separate matters.
A covenant is always conditional. The failure of one party frees the other from the terms of the covenant. In all justice, God could have terminated His relationship to the Jews many times in the Old Testament period. When the time finally came that He did take the kingdom from them, only the remnant saw the justice of it. The poor of the flock, the remnant that gave heed to the prophets knew the termination of the covenant with the Jews was according to the word of Jehovah.
(Zec 11:12-14) The final act of unfaithfulness came when the Good Shepherd appealed to the Jews for His hire, i.e. for that which was rightly His in payment for all He had done for them. Even without the covenant, indeed if it had never existed in the first place, His care, protection and even His chastisement of the Jewish people above the other races of the world should have entitled. Him to their immediate acceptance and undying allegiance.
Zerr: In order for the old law (here called Beauty) to be broken, it was necessary for Christ to nail it to the cross (Zec 11:12-13). And in order for that to happen it was necessary for Him to be betrayed and sold for silver. Hence the prophet Interrupts his story long enough to go back a few hours before the crucifixion to show how it was done, even as it had been predicted according to Mat 27:9-10. Hence this paragraph should be regarded as another parenthetic passage on that particular item of the whole transaction, to connect up all the vital parts of Gods great plan. Having nailed the old law to the cross. Christ put an end to the Jewish covenant as a religious rule for the Jews (Zec 11:14). In other words, the religious brotherhood for the whole 12 tribes (Judah and Israel) was broken up by the crucifixion which cleared the way for a new religion. (See Rom 10:4.)
Instead they betrayed Him, and sold Him for the price of an injured slave. Thirty pieces of silver (about $25) was the amount fixed by the law in compensation for the injury of anothers slave. (cf. Exo 21:32)
It is no coincidence that this prophecy was fulfilled by one whose chief concern was the establishment of Israel as the ruling world empire. Judas had followed Jesus for three years in the full expectation that He would indeed prove to be another Judas Maccabee, that He would not only free the Jews from Roman rule but establish them as the greatest and final world power. When he saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an ass instead of a war horse to the shouts of children instead of the cheers of an army, when he heard Jesus foretell the destruction of the city which, in Jewish ambition, was to become the capital of the Messianic world, it was too much. He bartered his revenge for the price of an injured slave. (cf. Mat 26:5; Mat 27:9-10)
The accuracy of Zechariahs prophecy is seen in the minute fulfillment of it in the detailed disposal of the money paid Judas. Zec 11:13 says it was cast unto the potter. Mat 27:9 quotes the prophecy of Jer 18:2; Jer 19:2; Jer 19:11; Jer 32:6-9 in recording that the money returned by Judas prior to his suicide was used to purchase a potters field. Act 1:18-19 mentions this fact also.
Following the crucifixion, and the consequent destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Hadrian. (see above on verse six), the Jews were scattered throughout the world. The unity which had prevailed following their return from exile was thus broken, an historic event predicted symbolically in verse fourteen by the breaking of the second staff called Bands or unity, The result was a nearly nineteen century postponement of the fulfillment of the promises made in Zechariah, chapter ten.
(Zec 11:15-17) G. A. Smith is quoted by Professor J. E. McFadyen as saying, concerning the crucifixion of Jesus, The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own doom. That is the summary of the history of Israel. The message of Zec 11:15-17 could scarcely be better paraphrased.
Zerr: Having annulled the Jewish religious law, the Lord was ready to give the world a new one (Zec 11:15). This was to be the Gospel of Christ, and it was to be taken to the people of the world by preachers. In 1Co 1:21 this Gospel is termed the foolishness of preaching and that is the meaning of our present verse that predicts it with the words instruments of a foolish shepherd. The terms of Zec 11:16 are those that would describe the treatment of an unfaithful shepherd by his displeased master. The meaning is a prediction that Christ would not seek to restore Judaism, but would condemn the corrupt Jewish leaders (i.e. ..ye generation of vipers, etc.) Matthew 23 gives an extended treatment of this attitude of Christ toward them. Please note that Zec 11:17 is a summing up of the entire chapter. The unfaithful Jewish leaders are condemned to complete rejection.
Following the crucifixion, as we have seen (see above on Zec 11:6) the nation of the Jews became a political football in the hands of the Herods and a series of inept Roman procurators. These, personified here as the foolish shepherd, presided over the final dissolution of the nation into anarchy and final obliteration.
The foolish shepherd may well have been personified in Bar Cocheba and his ill-fared attempt at revolt against Hadrian. The futility of his military activity is well described here in Zec 11:17.
Questions
A Parable of Shepherds
1. Discuss the symbolism of the forests in Zec 11:1-3.
2. Of what is fire symbolic in verse one?
3. The entire passage (Zec 10:3 to Zec 11:3) is designed to point up the difference between ___________________ and _________________.
4. Between the time of Zechariah and the establishment of the Jewish people as described in chapter ten, there was to be _________________.
5. Zec 11:12-13 is applied literally to _________________ in Mat 26:5; Mat 27:9-10.
6. Explain the allegory of the flock and the shepherd in this passage.
7. Why does God promise to sever His covenant relationship to the Jews?
8. What is meant by flock of slaughter?
9. What is described in verse six?
10. Review the events leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and 135 A.D.
11. Who was Bar Cocheba?
12. What is the symbolism of the two staffs?
13. Who fulfills the picture of the good shepherd in this passage? (Compare Joh 10:11)
14. Why, in Zec 11:9, does the shepherd decide to let the flock die rather than feed it?
15. What was symbolized in the breaking of the two staffs?
16. Gods patience was mistaken by the Jews as _________________.
17. In the intervening years between the Babylonian exile and the coming of Jesus, the concern of the Jews turned completely from _________________ to _________________.
18. A covenant is always _________________.
19. The final act of unfaithfulness came when _________________.
20. Instead of paying him his due, the people _________________ him and sold him.
21. What is the significance of the thirty pieces of silver?
22. How does the disposal of the blood money by Judas demonstrate the accuracy of Zechariahs prediction?
23. What happened to the Jewish people immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 A.D.?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Lord: Zec 14:5, Isa 49:4, Isa 49:5, Joh 20:17, Eph 1:3
Feed: Zec 11:7, Isa 40:9-11, Eze 34:23, Eze 34:24, Mic 5:4, Mat 15:24, Mat 23:37, Luk 19:41-44, Joh 21:15-17, Rom 15:8
Reciprocal: Psa 78:71 – feed Jer 50:6 – their shepherds Mic 3:2 – pluck Zec 13:7 – my shepherd Joh 10:1 – the same Joh 10:8 – came Act 20:28 – to feed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zec 11:4. This verse is a prediction that the Lord would feed the flock that had been slaughtered (mistreated) by the cruel and self-righteous princes among the Jews.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zec 11:4-5. Feed the flock of the slaughter That is, the people, who are so denominated, because they were devoted to ruin by the following mischievous counsels of their false teachers, and the oppressions of their rulers. This command seems to be addressed to Zechariah; but an insuperable objection lies against its being understood as given to him in his own person, because he did not live in such times as are here described; for Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high-priest, it appears, were men of extraordinary piety and virtue; and no doubt the rest of the princes or rulers of the people at this time were good men. We can, therefore, understand it in no other manner, as addressed to Zechariah, than as he typified Christ; and so God commanded him to do that which he had appointed Christ to do, namely, to gather and feed the lost sheep of Israel, which their shepherds scattered and destroyed. Whose possessors slay them Whose governors and teachers are the cause of their destruction. Those are not improperly said to do a thing who are the cause of its being done. And hold themselves not guilty Are not aware of the great guilt of their conduct; or, act as if they thought they might lawfully make merchandise of mens bodies or souls, for their own lucre or advantage. See 2Pe 2:3. And they that sell them Who betray their persons, or liberty, or property, for profit; or sell them for slaves to foreigners; or, by their exactions and oppressions, reduce them to such poverty that they are obliged to sell themselves; say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich That is, they hypocritically and impiously pretend to return God thanks for having put it in their power to acquire riches by such ungodly practices! And their own shepherds That is, their chief priests, princes, and rulers, as above; pity them not Destroy them without remorse. In Christs time, which seems to be here referred to, the chief priests and the elders, who were the possessors of the flock, by their traditions, the commandments of men, and their impositions on the consciences of the people, were become perfect tyrants, devouring their houses, engrossing their wealth, and fleecing the flock instead of feeding it. The Sadducees, who were Deists, corrupted their judgments; the Pharisees, who were bigots for superstitious observances, corrupted their morals by making void the commandments of God, Mat 15:6. Thus they slew the sheep of the flock; thus they sold them. They cared not what became of them, so they could but gain their own ends, and serve their own interests. Henry.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Zec 11:4-17. An Historical Sketch in Figurative Language.The author here assumes the rle of the chief actor in the events he is describing, and speaks in the first person. Unlike Zechariah, but in accordance with the custom of the later apocalyptic school, he does not mention by name the personages to whom he refers. They must, however, have been easily recognisable by his readers. We have here a soliloquy spoken by one who plays the part of the chief shepherd, i.e. ruler of Israel. This ruler is not, however, supreme, for he mentions those who buy and sell the sheep, and also the sheeps own shepherds, who are evidently Jews like himself. Unfortunately the text is not only corrupt, but also mutilated; for the three shepherds are mentioned as though they had been previously described; while some reference to the sheep must originally have stood between Zec 11:8 a and Zec 11:8 b. Since the speaker is clearly neither the Lord nor the supreme ruler of Israel, viz. the Syro-Greek king, it is evident that the three shepherds referred to in Zec 11:8 cannot be High Priests, for there was no Jewish layman who got rid of three High Priests, but must be subordinate Jewish nobles such as Simon the Benjamite and his satellites (cf. 2Ma 3:4; 2Ma 4:3). But if the three shepherds are not High Priests, there is no difficulty in supposing that a High Priest is the speaker; and in that case the chief actor in this apocalyptic, dramatic monologue may be identified with the Onias who was High Priest in the reign of Seleucus IV (2 Maccabees 3 f.). If Josephus confused Onias the High Priest with Onias the founder of the Temple at Leontopolis (Isa 19:18*), which is in itself probable, the three shepherds may well be the sons of Tobias, who according to Josephus (Wars, 11) were expelled from Jerusalem by Onias. Notwithstanding the doubts which have been cast on the trustworthiness of the accounts of Onias in 2 Mac, it is certain that the language of Zechariah 11 is entirely applicable to him on the assumption that the course of events was as follows: By his expulsion from Jerusalem of the unscrupulous sons of Tobias, Onias incurred the hostility of the great Jewish families; whereupon, being slandered to Seleucus by Simon, he was compelled to leave Jerusalem in order to defend himself before the king, Seleucus IV, at Antioch. Upon the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes immediately afterwards, Onias was deprived of the High Priesthood, which was conferred first upon Jason, then upon Menelaus, who contrived to have Onias murdered at Antioch, a crime which in the opinion of many required expiation before national restoration could come. If, therefore, the author of this section speaks in the rle of Onias, we can explain the details. Onias had received a commission as High Priest to shepherd the helpless Jewish people, whose position was like that of a flock sold to butchers for slaughter. The buyers are the Jewish nobles who farmed the taxes for the Syro-Greek government, and whose extortion was unpunished (render are not held guilty); the seller (read the sing.) of the sheep is the Syro-Greek king, who has no respect for the law of Israel and says, Cursed be the Lord, and (not for) let me be rich (blessed is a euphemism for cursed, cf. 1Ki 21:10; 1Ki 21:13, Job 1:5; Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 2:9), The sheeps own shepherds are the Jewish nobles and apparently are not distinguished from their buyers. In Zec 11:6 the apocalyptist describes from a past standpoint the horrors decreed by the Lord upon the land, which, when he wrote, had actually come to pass. It must be kept in mind that during the persecution of Antiochus and the years preceding it, the poorer Jews were persecuted by their fellow Jews. For verily the poor of the flock we must read with a different pointing for the Canaanites (i.e. merchants, cf. Isa 23:8, here and Zec 14:21 used contemptuously = hucksters) of the flock. The chief shepherd, i.e. the High Priest, represents his aims for his people by giving names to his two shepherds staves (cf. Psa 23:4), much as a modern cartoonist represents Cabinet Ministers as carrying parcels inscribed with the names of the measures which they are promoting. The one staff is called Beauty, or more correctly Pleasantness, and denotes the bearers aim to promote the welfare of his people by cultivating happy relations with the surrounding peoples, Philistines, Edomites, etc., on whose friendliness the peace of the Jews largely depended. The second staff, denominated Bands, represents the High Priests aim to promote unity among his own people. But in spite of all his efforts to promote peace and to protect his people from the extortionate nobles who were Jews only in name, he failed to secure support. He despaired of the sheep he had tried to shepherd, and they for their part wished to get rid of him. At last he felt that his position was untenable, and that he must give up his attempt to maintain peaceful relations with the neighbouring peoples. (N. B.In Zec 11:9 the Heb. is not necessarily as peevish as EV implies.) Although his action could be misrepresented, it was understood to have been dictated by conscientious motives: the sheep merchants that watched me knew that it was the word of the Lord.
A man beset by powerful enemies, however, knew that his case was hopeless, if he had no other claim to acquittal than innocence, and was unable to offer a substantial bribe. The shepherds appeal to the sheep to give him his wages is a curious instance of the Hebrew disregard of consistency in metaphor when the meaning is plain. Probably Onias, before leaving Jerusalem for Antioch, appealed to his sympathisers to provide him with funds. The result was utterly inadequate, since the wealthier Jews were mostly inclined to Hellenism. The sum was so miserably small, that it is symbolically represented as thirty pieces of silver, i.e. according to Exo 21:32 the piece to be paid as compensation for injury to a slave. It was insufficient to aid Onias, and he accordingly cast itnot to the potter, who would be the last person likely to be working in the house of the Lordbut into the treasury (see mg.). Despairing of maintaining any longer the unity of his nation, the High Priest breaks in pieces the staff which symbolises his aim in this respect. Probably Jerusalem should be read for Israel in Zec 11:14, since the breach was between the Hellenisera of Jerusalem and the Hasidans who were mostly to be found in the country districts.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
11:4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the {e} slaughter;
(e) Which being now destined to be slain, were delivered as out of the lion’s mouth.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The fate of the Good Shepherd 11:4-14
The reason for the devastation of the people and the land just described now becomes apparent. It is the people’s rejection of the messianic Shepherd-King (cf. Isaiah 42; Isaiah 49; Isaiah 50; Isaiah 53). The Lord would graciously give His people another good leader (Zec 11:4-6), but they would reject the good shepherd that He would provide for them (Zec 11:7-14).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yahweh, Zechariah’s God, instructed the prophet to present himself as a shepherd assigned to care for a flock doomed to slaughter. This may mean that the prophet was to act out a parable for his audience. [Note: E. Cashdan, "Zechariah," in The Twelve Minor Prophets, p. 314; Unger, p. 191.] However it seems more likely, in view of what follows, that Zechariah spoke for God, and sometimes as Messiah, as though he were a shepherd. He seems to have been presenting an allegory that was the product of a visionary experience (cf. Jer 1:10; Jer 25:15-38). [Note: Leupold, p. 207; Feinberg, God Remembers, p. 201.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
7. THE REJECTION AND MURDER OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Zec 11:4-17; Zec 13:7-9
There follows now, in the rest of chapter 11, a longer oracle, to which Ewald and most critics after him have suitably attached Zec 13:7-9. This passage appears to rise from circumstances similar to those of the preceding and from the same circle of ideas. Jehovahs people are His flock and have suffered. Their rulers are their shepherds; and the rulers of other peoples are their shepherds. A true shepherd is sought for Israel in place of the evil ones which have distressed them. The language shows traces of a late date. No historical allusion is obvious in the passage. The “buyers” and “sellers” of Gods sheep might reflect the Seleucids and Ptolemies between whom Israel were exchanged for many years, but probably mean their native leaders The “three shepherds cut off in a month” were interpreted by the supporters of the pre-exilic date of the chapters as Zechariah and Shallum, {2Ki 15:8-13} and another whom these critics assume to have followed them to death, but of him the history has no trace. The supporters of a Maccabean date for the prophecy recall the quick succession of high priests before the Maccabean rising. The “one month” probably means nothing more than a very short time.
The allegory which our passage unfolds is given, like so many more in Hebrew prophecy, to the prophet himself to enact. It recalls the pictures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the overthrow of the false shepherds of Israel, and the appointment of a true shepherd. Jehovah commissions the prophet to become shepherd to His sheep that have been so cruelly abused by their guides and rulers. Like the shepherds of Palestine, the prophet took two staves to herd his flock He called one “Grace,” the other “Union.” In a month he cut off three shepherds-both “month” and “three” are probably formal terms. But he did not get on well with his charge They were willful and quarrelsome. So he broke his staff Grace, in token that his engagement was dissolved. The dealers of the sheep saw that he acted for God. He asked for his wage, if they cared to give it. They gave him thirty pieces of silver, the price of an injured slave, {Exo 21:32} which by Gods command he cast into the treasury of the Temple, as if in token that it was God Himself whom they paid with so wretched a sum. And then, he broke his other staff, to signify that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel was broken. Then, to show the people that by their rejection of the good shepherd they must fall a prey to an evil one, the prophet assumed the character of the latter. But another judgment follows. In Zec 13:7-9 the good shepherd is smitten and the flock dispersed.
The spiritual principles which underlie this allegory are obvious. Gods own sheep, persecuted and helpless though they be, are yet obstinate, and their obstinacy not only renders Gods good will to them futile, but causes the death of the one man who could have done them good. The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own doom. That is a summary of the history of Israel. But had the writer of this allegory any special part of that history in view? Who were the “dealers of the flock?”
“Thus saith Jehovah my God: Shepherd the flock of slaughter, whose purchasers slaughter them impenitently, and whose sellers Say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich!-and their shepherds do not spare them. [For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land-oracle of Jehovah; but lo! I am about to give mankind over, each into the hand of his shepherd, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not secure it from their hands.] And I shepherded the flock of slaughter for the sheep merchants, and I took to me two staves-the one I called Grace, and the other I called Union-and so I shepherded the sheep. And I destroyed the three shepherds in one month. Then was my soul vexed with them, and they on their part were displeased with me. And I said: I will not shepherd you: what is dead, let it die; and what is destroyed, let it be destroyed; and those that survive, let them devour one anothers flesh! And I took my staff Grace, and I brake it so as to annul my covenant which I made with all the peoples. And in that day it was annulled, and the dealers of the sheep, who watched me, knew that it was Jehovahs word. And I said to them, If it be good in your sight, give me my wage, and if it be not good, let it go! And they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver. Then said Jehovah to me, Throw it into the treasury (the precious wage at which I had been valued of them). So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the House of Jehovah, to the treasury. And I brake my second staff, Union, so as to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And Jehovah said to me: Take again to thee the implements of a worthless shepherd: for lo! I am about to appoint a shepherd over the land; the destroyed he will not visit, the he will not seek out, the wounded he will not heal, he will not cherish, but he will devour the flesh of the fat.”
“Woe to My worthless shepherd, that deserts the flock! The sword be upon his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither, and his right eye be blinded.”
Upon this follows the section Zec 13:7-9, which develops the tragedy of the nation to its climax in the murder of the good shepherd.
“Up, Sword, against My shepherd and the man My compatriot-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it shall come to pass in all the land-oracle of Jehovah-that two-thirds shall be cut off in it, and perish, but a third shall be left in it. And I shall bring the third into the fire, and smelt it as men smelt silver and try it as men try gold. It shall call upon My Name, and I will answer it. And I will say, It is My people, and it will say, Jehovah my God!”