CHAPTER 11

1 Open, Lebanon, thy doors, That consume may the fire thy cedars:

2 Howl, thou fir-tree, Fore the cedar has fallen, For the strong has been laid waste: Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, For fallen has the fortified forest.

3 The voice of the howling of shepherds! For wasted is their excellency; The voice of the roaring of lions! For laid waste is the pride of Jordan.

4 Thus saith Jehovah my God, — Feed the flock of slaughter:

5 They who possess them, slay them, And consider not that they sin; And he who sells them, says, — “Blessed be Jehovah, for I am enriched;” Yea, he who feeds them spares them not.

6 Surely I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah; And behold, I will deliver every man Into the hand of his neighbour, And into the hand of his king; And smite shall they the land, And I will not deliver it from their hand.

7 And I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the poor of the flock; and I took to me two rods; the one I called “Beauty,” and the other I called “Cords;” and I fed the flock:

8 And I rejected three shepherds in one month: and wearied was my soul with them, and their soul also hated me:

9 And I said, — I will not feed you; What is to die, let it die, What is to be cast off, let it be cast off, And those which remain, let them devour, Every one the flesh of another.

10 And I took my rod “Beauty,” and broke it, that broken might be the covenant which I had made with all the people:

11 And it was broken in that day; and so the poor of the flock, who attended to me, knew that it was the word of Jehovah.

12 Then I said to them, “If it be good in your eyes, give me my reward; if not, forbear:” and they weighed as my reward thirty silverings.

13 And Jehovah said to me, “Cast it to the potter, the magnificent price at which I have been valued by them!” And I took the thirty silverings and cast them into the temple of Jehovah to the potter.

14 Then I broke my other rod, “Cords,” that broken might be the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And Jehovah said to me, take again to thee the implements of a foolish shepherd; —

16 For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land; What is cut off he will not visit, What is young he will not seek, What is broken he will not heal, What stands sound he will not feed; But the flesh of the fat he will devour, And their hoofs will he break. —

17 Woe to the worthless shepherd! Who forsakes the flock; The sword shall be on his arm And on his right eye; (336) His arm by drying shall dry up, And his right eye by contracting shall be contracted.