Zechariah 11:1-17

God remembers his promises

Zechariah

Gordon Churchyard

Chapter 11

v1 Open your doors, Lebanon. Then fire will destroy your *cedar trees!

v2 Cry aloud, *juniper trees, because (he has) destroyed (your) *cedar trees. (He has) ruined the strong (trees). Cry aloud, *oak trees in Bashan, because (he has) chopped down the thick forest.

v3 Listen to the cry of the *shepherds, because (he) destroyed their rich fields. (He has) ruined the strong plants by (the River) Jordan. So listen to the noise that the lions make.

Notes

Verses 1-3 Some Bible students say that these verses are part of a poem that starts in Zechariah 10:10. Other Bible students do not agree. Bible students are not certain whether the leaders in verses 1-3 are *Jewish or foreign.

Verse 1 *Prophets often linked Lebanon and Bashan, Isaiah 2:13; Jeremiah 22:20 and Ezekiel 27:5-6. *Cedar trees grew well in Lebanon. Ezekiel, in chapter 17 of his book, compared the royal family of Judah to a *cedar tree. Here, the *cedar trees may mean the leaders of many nations.

Verse 2 The *juniper trees, strong trees and *oak trees probably also mean the leaders of nations. ‘He’ in this verse and verse 3 is probably God. Zechariah does not tell us how God will do these things.

Verse 3 *Shepherds are sheep farmers. In Jeremiah 25:34-37, *shepherds mean the rulers of foreign nations. The lions make a noise. This is because someone, perhaps God, has destroyed their homes. This makes them dangerous. Again, like *shepherds, lions mean the leaders. Read Jeremiah 50:44 and Ezekiel 19:1-9.

v4 This is what the *LORD my God is saying. ‘Be a (good) *shepherd to the *flock. (An enemy) will kill them. v5 The people that buy them will kill them. But (these people will say) “We are not guilty!” The people that sell them will say, “Praise the *LORD, because I have become rich.” And the *shepherds will not pity the *flock. v6 So I will not continue to pity the people of the country’, says the *LORD. ‘Look! I will hand over everyone to his neighbour and to his king. And they will *oppress the country, but I will not rescue them from their power.’ v7 So I became the *shepherd of the *flock that (an enemy) had decided to kill. (I did this) for the people that bought and sold the sheep. Then I took two poles and I called one (pole) ‘Pleasant’. And I called the other (pole) ‘Union’. So I was the *shepherd of the *flock. v8 Then I removed three *shepherds in one month. Also, I became impatient with the (*flock) and they hated me. v9 And I said, ‘I will not be your *shepherd. Let the people that are dying die. Let (the enemy) destroy the people that the (enemy) is destroying. Let any (people) that remain destroy each other.’ v10 Then I took my pole (called) ‘Pleasant’ and I broke it. (I did this) to break my *covenant that I had made with all the nations. v11 I broke it on that day. Then all the people that bought and sold the sheep were watching me. And they knew that this was the word of the *LORD. v12 And I said to them, ‘If you so desire, then give to me my pay. But if not, then keep it.’ So they weighed 30 (pieces) of silver for me. v13 Then the *LORD said to me, ‘Throw to the *potter the generous wage that they paid to you.’ So I took the 30 (pieces) of silver. And I threw them to the *potter in the house of the *LORD. v14 Then I broke my second pole (called) ‘Union’. This broke the union between Judah and Israel.

v15 Then the *LORD said to me again, ‘Take the equipment of a foolish *shepherd.

v16 (Do this) because I am going to put another *shepherd in the country. (This is how this shepherd will behave:)

• (He will) not look for the people that are missing.

• (He will) not search for the people that have wandered away.

• (He will) not cure those that have injuries.

• (He will) not feed the healthy.

• But he will eat the meat from the best sheep. He will tear off their *hoofs.

v17 Bad things will happen to the *worthless *shepherd who leaves his animals. I hope that a sword will strike his arm and his right eye. Then his arm will die away and his eye will see nothing.’

Notes

Many Bible students say that this is a very difficult part of Zechariah to understand. To help us, some Bible students divide it into three sections:

Verses 4-6 The *LORD gives his people one last chance to obey the *covenant. He gives them a good *shepherd, or leader. But God knows that it will end with failure.

Verses 7-14 The people do not accept the good leader.

Verses 15-17 So the *LORD lets them have a bad leader instead.

In this section, we can imagine that Zechariah is telling a story. It is about Judah, Israel and their *shepherds (leaders). Zechariah says the words of God. Some *shepherds (leaders) were good, but other shepherds were bad. The people did not want the good *shepherds (leaders). The *New Testament tells us that the real ‘Good *Shepherd’ is Jesus. Read the section after the note on verse 14 called 'Who was the *Potter?'

Verse 4 A *shepherd is a sheep farmer. A *flock is a group of animals like sheep or goats. But here the *flock means God’s people and the *shepherd is their leader. God asks Zechariah to be the *shepherd, or leader, because their present leaders are bad leaders. Bible students do not know if Zechariah actually did these things. Perhaps he merely wrote about them. But some *prophets did act their *prophecies. Look in Something to do, number 3.

Verse 5 Notice two things here:

Some people buy the sheep. They are the foreign enemies. They want the female sheep to have many *lambs. A *lamb is a baby sheep. They will have much wool and meat. Other people sell the sheep. They are the bad leaders in Israel. They will have much money from the sale. Remember that the sheep here mean God’s people. The bad leaders and enemies hope to get a profit from what they do.

There is a special sort of humour here called ‘*irony’. It means that the words mean the opposite of what they say. In fact, the enemy is guilty. And God did not make the bad leaders rich.

Verse 6 The *LORD knew that the good *shepherd would not save the *flock. Their present leaders would scatter them and their enemies would *oppress them. Some Bible students think that ‘the country’ here may mean ‘the whole earth’. The *Hebrew Bible uses the word ‘hand’ three times here:

• to the hand of his neighbour

• to the hand of his king

• from the hand of those that *oppress people

Each time, ‘hand’ here means ‘power’. ‘*Oppress’ means ‘to be very, very unkind to people, especially if you want to gain money’.

Verse 7 Bible students do not agree how to translate ‘the people that bought and sold the sheep’. Some think that it should be ‘the people that the enemy *oppresses’. Most agree with our translation, but some, such as The New International Version, do not. Both translations can teach us something. The first pole is called ‘pleasant’. This means God. Read Psalms 27:4 and Psalms 90:17. The second pole is called ‘union’. This means God’s people, Judah and Israel.

Verse 8 Who were the three *shepherds? Bible students have suggested over 40 answers to this question! Perhaps three just means all the bad leaders, because three often means ‘complete’ in the Bible. If Zechariah is saying how God feels, then:

Isaiah 1:13 is an example of when God is becoming impatient with his people.

And John 15:25 tells us that Jesus said, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

Verse 9 Zechariah has said how God feels. Then here he tells us what God will do. He will let their enemies destroy his people.

Verse 10 ‘All the nations’ probably means ‘all God’s people in all the world’. Here God breaks his *covenant with his people. This means that he cancels it. In the *covenant (a word that means ‘agreement’):

• his people agree to love and obey God;

• God agrees to lead and protect his people.

But because the people wanted bad *shepherds (leaders), God cancels the *covenant.

Verse 11 The bad *shepherds wanted the good *shepherd to go. Then they could be rich again, verse 5! See also the note on verse 7.

Verse 12 Because he said in verse 9, ‘I will not be your *shepherd’, he could not ask them to pay him. But they gave him 30 (pieces) of silver. Nehemiah 5:15 tells us that this was a large amount of money. Notice that they ‘weighed’ it. This tells us that there were no coins at that time.

Verse 13 Read the note below, 'Who was the *Potter?'

Verse 14 The union between Judah and Israel broke when Solomon died, 400 years before. But both were still the *LORD’s people. Now, the break would be permanent. Perhaps it means the break between the people of Judah and the Samaritans. The Samaritans later lived in Israel, John 4:9.

Who was the *Potter?

Matthew 27:3-10 says:

(v3) Judas led Jesus’ enemies to him. Then (Judas) saw that (these enemies) wanted Jesus’ death. So Judas was sorry. And he brought the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and to the leaders (of the people). (v4) And he said, ‘I have done what is wrong. I have led his enemies to kill an innocent man.’ And they said, ‘That does not matter to us. You do something about it.’ (v5) And he threw down the pieces of silver in the *temple. Then, he went out and hanged himself. (v6) And the chief priests gathered up the silver pieces. And they said, ‘It is against the law to put them in the *treasury, because it is the price of blood.’ (v7) And they decided to buy with them the *potter’s field. They decided to bury foreigners in it. (v8) So they call that field even today, ‘The field of blood’. (v9) Then what Jeremiah the *prophet said would happen did happen. He said, ‘And they took the 30 pieces of silver. The people of Israel said that I was worth this price.’ (v10) They gave them for the *potter’s field, as the *Lord had said.

The two words *treasury and *potter sound very similar in the *Hebrew language. A *treasury is where you keep your valuable things and your money. A *potter is someone that makes pots. Bible students are not sure which word Zechariah used in verse 13. So, some translations have ‘I threw them to the *treasury.’ Matthew used both words.

Why did Matthew say that Jeremiah said these words? Perhaps it was because Jeremiah saw a *potter at work near the *temple in Jerusalem, Jeremiah 18:6 and Jeremiah 19:1. Or perhaps, Jeremiah did write the last 6 Chapter s of the book that we call Zechariah. We do not know.

Another interesting idea is this: Perhaps the word *potter means someone that melted gold and silver. Some Bible students think that there was someone like this near the *temple. He melted the gold and silver pieces that people offered to God. He made something new from them. The *Hebrew word for *potter means ‘someone that shapes things’.

Verse 15 Now the *prophet must act the part of a bad *shepherd. Here, God says that he is ‘foolish’.

Verse 16 The *hoof is the foot of a sheep or a cow. In one translation, ‘he will tear off their *hoofs’ is ‘he will throw away their broken bones’ (Revised English Bible). The word-picture is of a leader that only cares about himself. He will feed himself, but he will not care about his *flock (people).

Verse 17 With an eye and an arm that cannot fight, the bad *shepherd has no power. He can do nothing!

Something to do

1. Read Zechariah 10:10–11:3 as one poem.

2. Find the key word ‘*shepherd’ in Zechariah 11:4-17. A key word is a word that helps to explain a passage in a book.

3. Read about *prophets that acted their *prophecies: Isaiah 20:2; Jeremiah 27:2; Ezekiel 24:16.

4. Read the story of Ezekiel’s two poles, in Ezekiel 37:15-23.

5. Add to *table after chapter 9 (Something to do number 2) Matthew 26:15.

cedar ~ a type of tree.
juniper ~ a type of tree.
oak ~ a type of tree.
shepherd ~ a sheep farmer.
Jewish ~ a word that describes a Jew or anything that belongs to a Jew.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
prophet ~ someone who tells people what God is saying.
cedar ~ a type of tree.
shepherd ~ a sheep farmer.
lord ~ someone in authority; ‘my lord’ means ‘sir’. With a capital L, a name for God.
LORD ~ the covenant name for God that his servants use.
covenant ~ an agreement. God’s covenant with his people was a special agreement.
flock ~ a group of animals or birds; God’s people are like a flock, because he calls them his sheep.
oppress ~ be very unkind to someone, often to get money.
covenant ~ an agreement. God’s covenant with his people was a special agreement.
potter ~ a person who makes pots.
hoof ~ the foot of a sheep or a cow.
worthless ~ someone who does their work in a very poor way.'New Testament ~ the second part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after Jesus came.
potter ~ a person who makes pots.
prophet ~ someone who tells people what God is saying.
prophecy ~ words that a prophet speaks.
prophet ~ someone who tells people what God is saying.
lamb ~ a baby sheep or young sheep.
irony ~ a sort of poetry where words mean the opposite of what they say.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
oppress ~ be very unkind to someone, often to get money.
temple ~ a special house for God (in Jerusalem) or a house for false gods (in places like Babylon).
lord ~ someone in authority; ‘my lord’ means ‘sir’. With a capital L, a name for God.
LORD ~ the covenant name for God that his servants use.
covenant ~ an agreement. God’s covenant with his people was a special agreement.
treasury ~ where you keep your valuable things and your money.
table ~ a number of boxes to show information clearly.