Zechariah 11:4-13:9
New Catholic Bible
The New Shepherd of Israel
The Two Shepherds.[a] 4 Thus says the Lord, my God: Be a shepherd to the flock destined for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished, while those who sell them say, “Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich.” Even their own shepherds feel no pity for them.
6 I will no longer have any pity for the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. Rather, I will deliver each one of them into the power of his neighbor or into the clutches of the king. They will devastate the earth, and I will not deliver anyone from their hands.
7 And so I became a shepherd of the flock that was destined to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers. I took two staffs, one of which I named Favor and the other one of which I named Unity, and I pastured the sheep myself. 8 In a single month I got rid of the three shepherds. However, I soon lost patience with the flock, and they detested me.
9 Finally I said. “I will not be your shepherd any longer. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. Those who are left can devour one another.”
10 Then I took my staff “Favor” and snapped it in two, thereby annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 Therefore, it was annulled on that day, and the dealers who were watching me realized that this was the word of the Lord. 12 I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; if not, then forget about it.” Then they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
13 However, the Lord said to me, “Throw it into the treasury—the princely sum at which they valued my efforts.” Therefore, I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 14 Then I broke my second staff, “Unity,” in half, annulling the ties of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord thereupon said to me: Take once again the equipment of a worthless shepherd. 16 For I am now going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will have no concern for those who are perishing, nor go off in search of the strays, nor heal the injured, nor nourish those who survive, but who will eat the meat of the fat animals, tearing off even their hoofs.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons his flock.
May the sword fall upon his arm
and upon his right eye.
Let his arm be completely withered
and his right eye be totally blinded.
Chapter 12
The Lord Undertakes Defense of Jerusalem.1 An oracle: the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus says the Lord, who spread out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within:
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup that will intoxicate all the surrounding nations, and Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the world are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All those who try to lift it will hurt themselves seriously, even though all the nations of the earth will be massed against her.
4 On that day, says the Lord, I will strike all the horses with panic and their riders with madness. Further, I will strike blind all the horses of the peoples, but I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah. 5 Then the people of Judah will say to themselves, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem derive their strength from the Lord of hosts, their God.”
6 On that day, I will make the families of Judah like a brazier burning in a woodland, like a torch aflame among sheaves, and they will consume all the surrounding nations on their right and on their left, while the people of Jerusalem will reside peacefully in their city. 7 The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day, the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The weakest of them will be like David when that day comes, and the house of David will be godlike, with the angel of the Lord at their head.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
10 They Will Cry over Him Whom They Have Pierced.[b] Further, I will pour out a spirit of grace and supplication on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that they will look on me, the one whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning over Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.[c] 12 And the land will mourn, each family individually:
The family of the house of David by itself,
and their women by themselves;
the family of the house of Nathan by itself,
and their women by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,
and their women by themselves;
the family of the house of Shimei by itself,
and all their women by themselves;
14 all the remaining families by themselves,
and their women by themselves.
Chapter 13
The Country Will Be Purified. 1 On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2 On that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will banish the names of the idols from the land, so that they will be remembered no more. I will also rid the land of the prophets and the spirit of impurity. 3 If a man continues to prophesy, his parents, his own father and mother, will say to him, “You will not live, for you have uttered lies in the name of the Lord.” And while he is prophesying, his parents, his own father and mother, will pierce him through.
4 On that day, every prophet will be ashamed to relate his own prophetic vision, and he will not wear a hairy mantle in order to deceive. 5 Rather, he will say, “I am no prophet. I am a tiller of soil, for the land has been my possession since my youth.” 6 And if anyone asks him, “What are these wounds on your chest?” he will reply, “I received them in the house of my friends.”
The Song of the Sword
7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is my associate,
says the Lord of hosts.
Strike the shepherd,
so that the sheep may be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against their young.[d]
8 Throughout the land, says the Lord,
two-thirds in it will be cut off and perish,
and one-third will be left.
9 I will put that one-third through fire,
and I will refine them as silver is refined,
and I will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name
and I will hear them.
I will say, “These are my people,”
and they will say, “The Lord is our God.”
Footnotes
- Zechariah 11:4 The separation of the Samaritans became final around 328 B.C., and foreign invasions will occur from the fourth to the second century. At the end, an editor has added a curse against a wicked leader. Matthew 27:9-10 quite rightly applies to Jesus what is said (Zec 11:12-13) about the derisive wage of thirty pieces of silver: the one who came to save humankind was repaid with hatred and betrayal.
- Zechariah 12:10 The passage repeats thoughts expressed in the Servant Song in the Book of Isaiah (Isa 52:13—53:12): suffering rather than victory is the source of salvation, and those who were preparing the Servant’s downfall were in fact preparing the triumph of God. St. John (Jn 19:37) cites Zec 12:10 in connection with the piercing of the dead Jesus’ side with a lance.
- Zechariah 12:11 Probably a reference to the disaster that caused the death of Josiah, the reformer, near Megiddo (2 Ki 23:29). Others think the reference is to the celebration of a Canaanite rite in honor of the god Hadad-rimmon.
- Zechariah 13:7 Jesus cites this verse in foretelling his passion and the flight of the apostles (Mt 26:31).
