Open your doors, Lebanon,
That the fire may devour your cedars.
2Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the stately ones are destroyed.
Wail, you oaks of Bashan,
For the strong forest has come down.
3A voice of the wailing of the shepherds!
For their glory is destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions!
For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4Thus says YAHWEH1 my God2: “Feed the flock of slaughter. 5Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise be to YAHWEH, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds do not pity them. 6For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says YAHWEH; “but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”
7So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favour,” and the other I called “Union,” and I fed the flock. 8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. 9Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” 10I took my staff Favour, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the Word of YAHWEH. 12I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13YAHWEH said to me, “Throw it to the potter,”—the handsome price that I was valued at by them. I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in the House of YAHWEH.3 14Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15YAHWEH said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. 17Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!”
- 11:4 YAHWEH, the name God revealed to Prophet Musa in the Taurat, Exodus 3:15 – God said moreover to Musa, “You shall tell Bani-Israel this, ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Ibrahim, the God of Ishaq, and the God of Yaqub, has sent me to you.’ This is my Name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered to all generations.” ↩︎
- 11:4 God, English translation of elohim. Elohim (Hebrew) is related to allah (Arabic) and alaha (Syriac), all of which translate as “God,” and refer to the one true God. ↩︎
- 11:12-13 Quoted in the Injil, Matthew 27:9-10 as part of a composite reference combining these verses with passages from Prophet Armiya. The quotation is attributed only to the prophet Armiya, perhaps as the more well-known of the two prophets. The quotation is cited as prophecy fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal of Prophet ‘ISA Ibn Maryam due to several details including, 1. payment of 30 pieces of silver as wages for a job done, 2. the 30 coins are throw down in the Temple sanctuary, and 3. the purchase of a potter’s field. As Matthew 27:3-10 says: Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that ‘ISA was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.” He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” They took counsel, and bought the potter’s field with them, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field was called “The Field of Blood” to this day. Then that which was spoken through Armiya the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him upon whom a price had been set, whom some of Bani-Israel priced, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD commanded me.” ↩︎