Zechariah 11 explained: A Shepherd Valued at Thirty Silver

Proud forests burn (vv. 1-3)

Cedars, oaks and lions probably stand for powerful rulers or nations, and their wailing pictures a sudden fall. Readers differ on whether this closes the previous chapter's hope or opens this chapter's warning, and on exactly whose downfall is meant.

A flock marked for slaughter (vv. 4-6)

The LORD tells the prophet to tend a flock that buyers kill without guilt, that sellers profit from while praising God, and that its own shepherds do not pity; interpreters differ on whether the buyers are foreign rulers or the people's own elite. The LORD then says he will no longer pity the people of the land but will hand them over to their neighbors and their king.

Two staffs, three shepherds (vv. 7-9)

The prophet acts out shepherding with two staffs named Favor and Union, but the flock detests him and he gives up on them with harsh words. Who the three shepherds removed in one month were is one of the most debated puzzles in the Bible, and no answer has won agreement.

Favor broken (vv. 10-11)

Breaking the first staff seems to signal the end of an arrangement that had held the surrounding nations back from harming the flock. The oppressed of the flock, who were watching, understood this as a message from the LORD.

Thirty pieces of silver (vv. 12-13)

In Israel's law, thirty silver pieces was what an owner received when an ox gored his slave to death (Exodus 21:32), so 'handsome price' is bitter sarcasm, and the prophet throws the money to the potter at the temple. Christians read this in light of Judas, who was paid thirty silver pieces to betray Jesus and whose money later bought a potter's field (Matthew 27).

Union broken, a worthless shepherd (vv. 14-17)

Breaking the second staff ends the hope that the southern kingdom, Judah, and the northern kingdom, Israel, would be one family again, and the prophet then plays a leader who devours the flock instead of tending it. The closing curse says such a shepherd will lose the use of his arm and his right eye, probably standing for his strength and his sight.

Key verse: Zechariah 11:13

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the chapter directly predicts the rejection of Jesus and the later fall of Jerusalem, or first described leaders and events in the prophet's own era that Christians afterward saw echoed in Jesus.

Something to think about

When have you seen leaders profit from the very people they were supposed to protect, and what do you think made people put up with it?