The Lord will punish the other nations
1Mount Lebanon, you must open your doors
for the fire to come in and burn your cedar trees.
2The cypress tree must cry
because the cedar tree has fallen over
and the most beautiful trees have been burnt.
3The shepherds cry because
the beautiful field where the sheep eat
has burnt down. The lions roar
because the bushes at the Jordan River
have burnt down.
The 2 shepherds
4The Lord my God said: ‘You must be a shepherd and look after the sheep that will be killed. 5The people who buy the sheep kill them and the people do not feel sorry about it. The people who sell the sheep say: “Praise the Lord. We are rich.” Even the shepherds of the sheep do not feel sorry for them.’
6The Lord says: ‘Yes, I will also not feel sorry for all the people in the land. I will cause them to do what they want to each other and I will cause their king to do what he wants with them. They will destroy the land and I will not save anyone.’
7I, Zechariah, became a shepherd and I looked after sheep for the sheep merchants. I took 2 shepherd-staffs and I looked after the sheep. I named one staff Friendly and the other staff Together.
8In the first month I chased away 3 other shepherds. I could not be patient with them any longer and they did not want me there to be their shepherd. 9Then I said: ‘I will not be your shepherd anymore and I will not worry about you. The sheep that want to die can die and the sheep that want to get lost can go away. If there are any sheep left, they can eat each other.’
10Then I took my staff, Friendly, and I broke it. The Lord said He would do the same. He would break the covenant that He had made with all the nations. 11The covenant that God had made with them stopped on that day. The sheep merchants saw what I did and they knew the Lord was talking to them. 12I told them: ‘You must pay me, but if you don't want to pay me, you can keep the money.’
Then they gave me 30 pieces_of_silver. 13They thought that was how much I should get. The Lord then said to me: ‘Only 30 pieces_of_silver? Throw the silver to the man who can melt it.’
I took the 30 pieces_of_silver and I threw them into the temple to the man who melts silver.
14Then I took my other staff, Together, and I broke it to show that the people of Judah and Israel would no longer be together.
15The Lord then said to me: ‘You must get other shepherd-staffs, and you must be a shepherd for the sheep, but now you must do it like a shepherd who does not know how to be a shepherd. 16Because I will now choose a bad shepherd and tell him to lead the people of this land. He will not worry about the sheep that get lost. He will not go and look for the small lambs, he will not help the sheep that have been hurt and he will not look after the healthy sheep. He will eat all the fat sheep and tear off their feet. 17That worthless shepherd who does not know how to look after the sheep, and who leaves the sheep alone, will suffer. They will pierce his arm and his right eye with a sword. His arm will become crippled and his right eye will become blind.’
