Online Bible

The Doomed Flock

Open your doors, Lebanon,So that a ^afire may feed on your ^bcedars.

2 Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen,For the magnificent trees have been destroyed;Wail, oaks of Bashan,Because the ¹impenetrable forest has come down.3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ ^awail,For their splendor is ruined;There is a ^bsound of the young lions’ roar,For the ¹pride of the Jordan is ruined.

4 This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock doomed to ^aslaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and ¹go ^aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for ^bI have become rich!’ And their ^cown shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 For I will ^ano longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD; “but behold, I will ^blet the people fall, each into another’s ¹power and into the ²power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^cnot rescue them from their ³power.”

7 So I ^apastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ¹therefore also the ^bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^cstaffs: the one I called ²^dFavor, and the other I called ^eUnion; so I pastured the flock. 8 Then I did away with the three shepherds in ^aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ¹was tired of me. 9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to ^adie, ¹let it die, and what is to perish, ²let it perish; and ³let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” 10 And I took my staff ¹^aFavor and cut it in pieces, to ²^bbreak my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was ¹broken on that day, and ²so the ^aafflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. 12 And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^awages; but if not, ¹never mind!” So they weighed out ^bthirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the ^apotter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. 14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^aUnion, to ^bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And the LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^afoolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^anot care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will ^bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

17 “^aWoe to the worthless shepherdWho abandons the flock!A ^bsword will be on his armAnd on his right eye!His ^carm will be totally withered,And his right eye will be ¹blind.”