Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Zechariah 11:4 - 11:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Good Shepherds
v. 4. Thus saith the Lord, my God, in formally engaging the prophet as His pastor with regard to the congregation of Israel, Feed the flock of the slaughter, those suffering with oppression at the present time,
v. 5. whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty, the buyers and masters of the covenant people dealing with them as they pleased, without incurring blame; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich, the expression fitly describing the self-satisfaction felt by the hard-hearted masters in enriching themselves at the expense of the flock; and their own shepherds pity them not. One is compelled to think of the attitude of the rulers of the people at the time of Jesus and before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
v. 6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord, no longer spare them after a last effort to save them; but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor's hand, so that internal strife and dissension would ruin the country, and into the hand of his king, the foreign emperor or governor; and they shall smite the land, oppressing it in various ways; and out of their hand, out of the power of such oppressors, I will not deliver them.
v. 7. And I will feed the flock of the slaughter, rather, "I fed the flock," for the prophet here describes how he undertook the commission which the Lord gave him, even you, O poor of the flock, those in his charge being in a very sad condition, lacking in spiritual knowledge. And I took unto me two staves, such as shepherds used in their work; the one I called Beauty, or "loveliness, favor," such as the Lord intended to show His people through the work of His servant, and the other I called Bands, to indicate that the Lord wanted to have His people feel the blessings of true unity over against the oppression of all their enemies; and I fed the flock, performing his work as pastor according to the names of the two staves.
v. 8. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month, the wicked civil authorities, the priests, and the scribes of the Jewish nation being probably meant, who were removed from power in a very short time; and my soul loathed them, since he, the type of the one Good Shepherd and Ruler of His Church, became impatient with their perverse impenitence, and their soul also abhorred me, the sheep foolishly refusing to follow the kind leadership of their shepherd.
v. 9. Then said I, I will not feed you, he declared that he would no longer be their shepherd; that that dieth, let it die, he would let them rush to their own ruin since they refused to be guided by him; and that that Is to be cut off, let it be cut off, destroyed. by the power of the oppressor; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another, in the civil war, such as preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem.
v. 10. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, to indicate the withdrawal of God's favor from His people, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. The person of the prophet here merges into that of his antitype, of the Good Shepherd Himself, for it is He who finally withdrew the blessings of His solemn promise from His former chosen people.
v. 11. And it was broken in that day, the covenant being annulled by Israel's disobedience; and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me, the lowly among the people, those who were Israelites in truth, knew that it was the word of the Lord. It was from among the poor and lowly that the Lord, even in those days, recruited His Church, even as St. Paul speaks of it, 1 Corinthians 1.
v. 12. And I said unto them, to the flock that did, not recognize the things of its peace, If ye think good, if they desired to recognize and acknowledge the services rendered them, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver, the value of a slave that had been killed, Exo_21:32, the ordinary price of a female slave, Hos_3:2. Cf Mat_26:15.
v. 13. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, thereby rejecting the insult which they offered. A goodly price that I was prized at of them! this being said in impressive irony. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. This statement has no meaning in this connection, but it receives a meaning through its fulfillment, for the thirty pieces of silver which the rulers of the Jews weighed to Judas for his betrayal of the Lord were by him cast into the Temple, the money later being used for the purchase of a potter's field. Cf Mat_27:1-10 and Jer_32:6-15.
v. 14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel, so that, by the punishment of God, there might be lasting dissension in the Jewish camp, a peculiarity which, in the later history of the people, contributed much toward the rapid overthrow of the nation. Sin is a reproach to any people, but the height of folly is the denial and rejection of the Messiah, the one Good Shepherd.