Chapter 11
1 Open your doors , Lebanon , that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail , cypress tree , for the cedar has fallen , because the stately ones are destroyed . Wail , you oaks of Bashan , for the strong forest has come down .
3 A voice of the wailing of the shepherds ! For their glory is destroyed — a voice of the roaring of young lions ! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined .
4 Yahweh my God says : " Feed the flock of slaughter .
5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished . Those who sell them say, ‘ Blessed be Yahweh , for I am rich ;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them .
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land," says Yahweh ; " but , behold , I will deliver every one of the men into his neighbor ’s hand and into the hand of his king . They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them ."
7 So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock . I took for myself two staffs . The one I called " Favor " and the other I called "Union", and I fed the flock .
8 I cut off the three shepherds in one month ; for my soul was weary of them , and their soul also loathed me .
9 Then I said, " I will not feed you . That which dies , let it die ; and that which is to be cut off , let it be cut off ; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh ."
10 I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples .
11 It was broken in that day ; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh ’s word .
12 I said to them, "If you think it best , give me my wages ; and if not , keep them." So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver .
13 Yahweh said to me , " Throw it to the potter — the handsome price that I was valued at by them !" I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in Yahweh ’s house .
14 Then I cut apart my other staff , Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel .
15 Yahweh said to me , " Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd .
16 For , behold , I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are cut off , neither will seek those who are scattered , nor heal that which is broken , nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep , and will tear their hoofs in pieces .
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock ! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye . His arm will be completely withered , and his right eye will be totally blinded!"