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Zechariah 11:7
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5 whose owners slaughter them and afeel no guilt; those who sell them bsay, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do cnot pity them.  
6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall1 attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”  
7 So I fed the flock for slaughter,1 in particular athe poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called2 Beauty, and the other I called3 Bonds; and I fed the flock.  
8 I1 dismissed the three shepherds ain one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.  
9 Then I said, “I will not feed you. aLet what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.”  
10 And I took my staff,1 Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.  
11 So it was broken on that day. Thus athe poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.  
12 Then I said to them, “If it is1 agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they aweighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.  
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the apotter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.  
14 Then I cut in two my other staff,1 Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.  
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
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Zechariah 11:7

And—rather, "Accordingly": implying the motive cause which led Messiah to assume the office, namely, the will of the Father (Zechariah 11:4-5), who pitied the sheep without any true shepherd.

I will feed—"I fed" [CALVIN], which comes to the same thing, as the past tense must in Zechariah's time have referred to the event of Messiah's advent then future: the prophets often speaking of the future in vision as already present. It was not My fault, Jehovah implies, that these sheep were not fed; the fault rests solely with you, because ye rejected the grace of God [CALVIN].

even you, O poor of the flock—rather, "in order that (I might feed, that is, save) the poor (humble; compare Zechariah 11:11; Zephaniah 3:12; Matthew 5:3) of the flock"; literally, not you, but, "therefore (I will feed)" [MOORE]. See Margin, "Verily the poor." It is for the sake of the believing remnant that Messiah took charge of the flock, though He would have saved all, if they would have come to Him. They would not come; therefore, as a nation, they are "the flock of (that is, doomed to) slaughter."

I took . . . two staves—that is, shepherds' staves or rods (Psalms 23:4). Symbolizing His assumption of the pastor's office.

Beauty—The Jews' peculiar excellency above other nations (Deuteronomy 4:7), God's special manifestation to them (Psalms 147:19-20), the glory of the temple ("the beauty of holiness," Psalms 29:2; compare Psalms 27:4; Psalms 90:17; II Chronicles 20:21), the "pleasantness" of their land (Genesis 49:15; Daniel 8:9; Daniel 11:16), "the glorious land."

Bands—implying the bond of "brotherhood" between Judah and Israel. "Bands," in Psalms 119:61, Margin, is used for confederate companies: The Easterns in making a confederacy often tie a cord or band as a symbol of it, and untie it when they dissolve the confederacy [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of a common faith and common laws (Zechariah 11:14), but they would not; therefore in just retribution He broke "His covenant which He had made with all the people." Alexander, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Pompey were all kept from marring utterly the distinctive "beauty" and "brotherhood" of Judah and Israel, which subsisted more or less so long as the temple stood. But when Jehovah brake the staves, not even Titus could save the temple from his own Roman soldiery, nor was Jurian able to restore it.




Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Zechariah 11:7:

Jeremiah 48:17
Zechariah 11:4
Zechariah 11:10
Zechariah 11:15
Zechariah 13:7

 

<< Zechariah 11:6   Zechariah 11:8 >>

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