The Flock Doomed to Slaughter
1
Open your doors, 1O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars!
2
Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, 2oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled!
3
The sound of 3the wail of 4the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of 5the lions, 6for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4
Thus said the LORD my God: 7"Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5
8Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, 9I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6
For 10I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand."
7
11So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named 12Favor, the other I named 13Union. 14And I tended the sheep.
8
In one month 15I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.
9
So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. 16What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another."
10
And I took 17my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
11
So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12
Then I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages 18thirty pieces of silver.
13
Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--19the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 20thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
14
Then I broke 21my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15
Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of 22a foolish shepherd.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)