Zechariah 11:7

Will feed. — Correctly, fed. The prophet, acting as God’s representative, performs a symbolical action, figuring thereby God’s treatment of His people.

Beauty. — Or, rather, favour.

Bands. — Or, as in margin, binders. The first staff denotes the return of God’s favour to His people; the second (comp. Ezekiel 37:16) the binding together of Judah and Ephraim in “brotherhood,” which latter took place, for the first time since the separation, on the return from Babylon. When He took His flock into favour once more, “He made with them a covenant of peace... so that they should no more be a prey to the heathen.” (See Ezekiel 34:25.)