Zechariah · 17 verses
Zechariah 11
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Thirty pieces of silver are offered as wages; the LORD calls them a magnificent price, and the shepherd throws them to a potter in the house of the LORD.
A forest brought to its kneesvv. 1–3
Lebanon is summoned to open its doors for fire, while cedar, cypress, and the oaks of Bashan join a most unhappy chorus. The shepherds wail, the young lions roar, and even the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed: a woodland catastrophe with an impressively large cast.
The flock, the staffs, and the wagesvv. 4–14
The LORD commands the narrator to pasture a flock marked for slaughter, whose buyers kill without remorse and whose sellers congratulate themselves on becoming rich. The narrator takes two staffs, Favor and Union, dismisses three shepherds in one month—without names or reasons—and then abandons the flock to its own dreadful appetite. Favor is broken, the covenant is revoked, and thirty pieces of silver are offered as wages; the money goes to the potter in the house of the LORD. Union follows, cut in two, and the brotherhood between Judah and Israel is broken with it.
The shepherd who eats the flockvv. 15–17
The LORD now tells the narrator to take up the equipment of a foolish shepherd. This shepherd will not seek, heal, or sustain; instead, he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves, which is a remarkably specific way to fail at shepherding. The final sentence calls down injury on his arm and eye.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Zech 11:1Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars!
Zech 11:2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees are ruined! Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been cut down!
Zech 11:3Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.
Zech 11:4This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,
Zech 11:5whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.
Zech 11:6For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
Zech 11:7So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.
Zech 11:8And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
Zech 11:9Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”
Zech 11:10Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.
Zech 11:11It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
Zech 11:12Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
Zech 11:13And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Zech 11:14Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Zech 11:15And the LORD said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
Zech 11:16For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.
Zech 11:17Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 302 passages were voted onto 17 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 12Matthew 26:15and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
- 17Jeremiah 23:1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.
- 17Ezekiel 13:3This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit yet have seen nothing.
- 13Matthew 27:3–10When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
- 10Zechariah 11:7So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.
- 171 Corinthians 8:4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- 5Jeremiah 50:7All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’
- 12Exodus 21:32If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.
- 17Ezekiel 34:2“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?
- 3Jeremiah 50:44Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- 6Jeremiah 13:14I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”
- 10Psalms 89:39You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.
- 12Luke 22:3–6Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve.
- 12Mark 14:10–11Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.
- 13Acts 1:18–19(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.
- 17Isaiah 42:19–20Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD?
Onward