Zechariah 11 - Introduction

The rejection of the Shepherd

In this chapter, which forms the second section of the First Burden, we have, so to speak, a companion picture to that drawn in the first section. If that picture, however, was bright with the coming of the King, the victories He would achieve and the blessings He would bestow, this picture is dark with His rejection and the disastrous consequences which it would entail. The chapter opens with a vivid description of these consequences, Zechariah 11:1-3. The desolating scourge, approaching as it ever did from the north, overthrows the pride of Lebanon and Bashan, Zechariah 11:1-2, and then, sweeping southward down the Jordan valley, falls upon the shepherds of Israel, Zechariah 11:3. The causes which led to this judgment are treated of in the next paragraph, Zechariah 11:4-14. In obedience to the command of Jehovah, Zechariah 11:4, the charge of the flock, which had been impiously slaughtered and sold by former shepherds, Zechariah 11:5, whom God in His displeasure had suffered to maltreat them, Zechariah 11:6, is undertaken by a good shepherd, whom the prophet personates, and who endeavours to restore the comeliness and unity of the flock, Zechariah 11:7, and to cut off its oppressors, Zechariah 11:8 a. Wearied, however, and disgusted with the want of sympathy which he encounters, the shepherd relinquishes his thankless task, Zechariah 11:8. He asks for his wages, as his work was finished, and receives the paltry and insulting purchase-money of a slave, Zechariah 11:12, which at the bidding of Jehovah he casts away in scorn, Zechariah 11:13, and completes the abandonment of the work which he had undertaken, Zechariah 11:14. Then, in the remaining paragraph, or sub-section, of the chapter, Zechariah 11:15-17, the prophet is directed to assume a new and opposite character, and to personate a foolish shepherd, Zechariah 11:15, whose neglect and cruelty should fall heavily on the flock, Zechariah 11:16, but whom terrible vengeance should ultimately overtake, Zechariah 11:17.