God's prophet, who, in the chapters before, was an ambassador sent to
promise peace, is here a herald sent to declare war. The Jewish nation
shall recover its prosperity, and shall flourish for some time and
become considerable; it shall be very happy, at length, in the coming
of the long-expected Messiah, in the preaching of his gospel, and in
the setting up of his standard there. But, when thereby the chosen
remnant among them are effectually called in and united to Christ, the
body of the nation, persisting in unbelief, shall be utterly abandoned
and given up to ruin, for rejecting Christ; and it is this that is
foretold here in this chapter--the Jews rejecting Christ, which was
their measure-filling sin, and the wrath which for that sin came upon
them to the uttermost. Here is,
I. A prediction of the destruction itself that should come upon the
Jewish nation,
Zechariah 11:1-3.
II. The putting of it into the hands of the Messiah.
1. He is charged with the custody of that flock,
Zechariah 11:4-6.
2. He undertakes it, and bears rule in it,
Zechariah 11:7,8.
3. Finding it perverse, he gives it up
(Zechariah 11:9),
breaks his shepherd's staff
(Zechariah 11:10,11),
resents the indignities done him and the contempt put upon him
(Zechariah 11:12,13),
and then breaks his other staff,
Zechariah 11:14.
4. He turns them over into the hands of foolish shepherds, who,
instead of preventing, shall complete their ruin, and both the blind
leaders and the blind followers shall fall together into the ditch,
Zechariah 11:15-17.
This is foretold to the poor of the flock before it comes to pass,
that, when it does come to pass, they may not be offended.
Destruction of the Jewish State.
B. C. 510.
1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy
cedars.
2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty
are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the
vintage is come down.
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their
glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the
pride of Jordan is spoiled.
In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture
predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of
Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which
our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly
and expressly. We have here,
1. Preparation made for that destruction
(Zechariah 11:1):
"Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let
thy king in--he came to his own and his own received him not;
now thou must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the
forest, and all the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire
come in and devour its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the
temple, which was built of cedars from Lebanon, and the stones of it
white as the snow of Lebanon. It was burnt with fire by the Romans, and
its gates were forced open by the fury of the soldiers. To confirm
this, they tell a story, that forty years before the destruction of the
second temple the gates of it opened of their own accord, upon which
prodigy Rabbi Johanan made this remark (as it is found in one of the
Jewish authors), "Now I know," said he, "that the destruction of the
temple is at hand, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, Open thy
doors, O Lebanon! that the fire may devour thy cedars." Others
understand it of Jerusalem, or rather of the whole land of Canaan, to
which Lebanon was an inlet on the north. All shall lie open to the
invader, and the cedars, the mighty and eminent men, shall be devoured,
which cannot but alarm those of an inferior rank,
Zechariah 11:2.
If the cedars have fallen (if all the mighty are
spoiled, and brought to ruin), let the fir-tree howl. How
can the slender fir-trees stand if stately cedars fall? If cedars are
devoured by fire, it is time for the fir-trees to howl; for no wood is
so combustible as that of the fir. And let the oaks of Bashan,
that lie exposed to every injury, howl, for the forest of the
vintage (or the flourishing vineyard, that used to be
guarded with a particular care) has come down, or (as some read it)
when the defenced forests, such as Lebanon was, have come down.
Note, The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the
rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those that are every
way their inferiors not to be secure.
2. Lamentation made for the destruction
(Zechariah 11:3):
There is a voice of howling. Those who have fallen howl for
grief and shame, and those who see their own turn coming howl for fear.
But the great men especially receive the alarm with the utmost
confusion. Those who were roaring in the day of their revels and
triumphs are howling in the day of their terrors; for now they are
tormented more than others. Those great men were by office
shepherds, and such should have protected God's flock committed to
their charge; it is the duty both of princes and priests. But they were
as young lions, that made themselves a terror to the flock with
their roaring and the flock a prey to themselves with their tearing.
Note, It is sad with a people when those who should be as shepherds to
them are as young lions to them. But what is the issue? The shepherds
howl, for their glory is spoiled. Their pastures, and the
flocks which covered them, which were the glory of the swains, are laid
waste. The young lions howl, for the pride of Jordan is
spoiled. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks, in
which the lions reposed themselves; and therefore, when the river
overflowed and spoiled them, the lions came up from them (as we read
Jeremiah 49:19),
and they came up roaring. Note, When those who have power proudly abuse
their power, and, instead of being shepherds, are as young lions, they
may expect that the righteous God will humble their pride and break
their power.
Judgments Predicted and Typified.
B. C. 510.
4 Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty:
and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am
rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith
the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his
neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall
smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of
the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called
Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul
loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it
die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let
the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that
I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock
that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price;
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces
of silver.
13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly
price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty
pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of
the LORD.
14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I
might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah
sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for
judgment Christ came into this world
(John 9:39),
for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were, about the
time of his coming, wretchedly corrupted and degenerated by the
worldliness and hypocrisy of their rulers. Christ would have healed
them, but they would not be healed; they are therefore left desolate,
and abandoned to ruin. Observe here,
I. The desperate case of the Jewish church, under the tyranny of their
own governors. Their slavery in their own country made them as
miserable as their captivity in strange countries had done: Their
possessors slay them and sell them,
Zechariah 11:5.
In Zechariah's time we find the rulers and the nobles justly rebuked
for exacting usury of their brethren; and the governors, even by
their servants, oppressive to the people,
Nehemiah 5:7,15.
In Christ's time the chief priests and the elders, who
were the possessors of the flock, by their traditions, the commandments
of men, and their impositions on the consciences of the people, became
perfect tyrants, devoured their houses, engrossed their wealth, and
fleeced the flock instead of feeding it. The Sadducees, who were
deists, corrupted their judgments. The Pharisees, who were bigots for
superstition, corrupted their morals, by making void the commandments
of God,
Matthew 15:16.
Thus they slew the sheep of the flock, thus they sold them. They cared
not what became of them so they could but gain their own ends and serve
their own interests. And,
1. In this they justified themselves: They slay them and hold
themselves not guilty. They think that there is no harm in it, and
that they shall never be called to an account for it by the chief
Shepherd; as if their power were given them for destruction, which was
designed only for edification, and as if, because they sat in Moses's
seat, they were not under the obligation of Moses's law, but might
dispense with it, and with themselves in the breach of it, at their
pleasure. Note, Those have their minds woefully blinded indeed who do
ill and justify themselves in doing it; but God will not hold those
guiltless who hold themselves so.
2. In this they affronted God, by giving him thanks for the gain of
their oppression: They said, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich,
as if, because they prospered in their wickedness, got money by it, and
raised estates, God had made himself patron of their unjust practices,
and Providence had become particeps criminis--the associate of their
guilt. What is got honestly we ought to give God thanks for, and to
bless him whose blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow with it.
But with what face can we go to God either to beg a blessing upon the
unlawful methods of getting wealth or to return him thanks for success
in them? They should rather have gone to God to confess the sin, to
take shame to themselves for it, and to vow restitution, than thus to
mock him by making the gains of sin the gift of God, who hates
robbery for burnt-offerings, and reckons not himself praised by the
thanksgiving if he be dishonoured either in the getting or the using of
that which we give him thanks for.
3. In this they put contempt upon the people of God, as unworthy their
regard or compassionate consideration: Their own shepherds pity them
not; they make them miserable, and then do not commiserate them.
Christ had compassion on the multitude because they fainted and were
scattered abroad, as if they had no shepherd (as really they had
worse than none); but their own shepherds pitied them not, nor
showed any concern for them. Note, It is ill for a church when its
pastors have no tenderness, no compassion for precious souls, when they
can look upon the ignorant, the foolish, the wicked, the weak, without
pity.
II. The sentence of God's wrath passed upon them for their
senselessness and stupidity in this condition. There was a general
decay, nay, a destruction, of religion among them, and it was all one
to them; they regarded it not. My people love to have it so,
Jeremiah 5:31.
Though they were oppressed and broken in judgment, yet they
willingly walked after the commandment,
Hosea 5:11.
And, as their shepherds pitied them not, so they did not bemoan
themselves; therefore God says
(Zechariah 11:6),
"I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land. They have
courted their own destruction, and so let their doom be." But those are
truly miserable whom the God of mercy himself will no more have
compassion upon. Those who are willing to have their consciences
oppressed by those who teach for doctrines the commandments of
men (as the Jews were, who called those Rabbi, Rabbi, that
did so,
Matthew 15:9,23:7),
are often punished by oppression in their civil interests, and justly,
for those forfeit their own rights who tamely give up God's rights. The
Jews did so; the Papists do so; and who can pity them if they be ruled
with rigour? God here threatens them,
1. That he will deliver them into the hand of oppressors, every one
into his neighbour's hand, so that they shall use one another
barbarously. The several parties in Jerusalem did so; the
zealots, the seditious, as they were called, committed
greater outrages than the common enemy did, as Josephus relates in his
history of the wars of the Jews. They shall be delivered every one
into the hand of his king, that is, the Roman emperor, whom they
chose to submit to rather than to Christ, saying, We have no king
but Cæsar. Thus they thought to ingratiate themselves with
their lords and masters. But for this God brought the Romans upon them,
who took away their place and nation.
2. That he will not deliver them out of their hands: They shall
smite the land, the whole land, and out of their hand I will not
deliver them; and, if the Lord do not help them, none else can, nor
can they help themselves.
III. A trial yet made whether their ruin might be prevented by sending
Christ among them as a shepherd; God had sent his servants to them in
vain, but last of all he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will
reverence my Son,
Matthew 21:37.
Divers of the prophets had spoken of him as the Shepherd of
Israel,
Isaiah 40:11,Eze+34:23.
He himself told the Pharisees that he was the Shepherd of the
sheep, and that those who pretended to be shepherds were thieves
and robbers
(John 10:1,2,11),
apparently referring to this passage, where we have,
1. The charge he received from his Father to try what might be done
with this flock
(Zechariah 11:4):
Thus saith the Lord my God (Christ called his Father his
God because he acted in compliance with his will and with an eye to
his glory in his whole undertaking), Feed the flock of the
slaughter. The Jews were God's flock, but they were the flock of
slaughter, for their enemies had killed them all the day long and
accounted them as sheep for the slaughter; their own
possessors slew them, and God himself had doomed them to the
slaughter. Yet "feed them by reproof instruction, and comfort;
provide wholesome food for those who have so long been soured with the
leaven of the scribes and Pharisees." Other sheep he had, which were
not of this fold, and which afterwards must be brought; but
he is first sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
Matthew 15:24.
2. His acceptance of this charge, and his undertaking pursuant to it,
Zechariah 11:7.
He does as it were say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God!
and, since this is thy will, it is mine: I will feed the flock of
slaughter. Christ will care for these lost sheep; he will go about
among them, teaching and healing even you, O poor of the
flock! Christ did not neglect the meanest, nor overlook them for
their meanness. The shepherds that made a prey of them regarded not the
poor; they were conversant with those only that they could get by; but
Christ preached his gospel to the poor,
Matthew 11:5.
It was an instance of his humiliation that his converse was mostly with
the inferior sort of people; his disciples, who were his constant
attendants, were of the poor of the flock.
3. His furnishing himself with tools proper for the charge he had
undertaken: I took unto me two staves, pastoral staves; other
shepherds have but one crook, but Christ had two, denoting the double
care he took of his flock, and what he did both for the souls and for
the bodies of men. David speaks of God's rod and his
staff
(Psalms 23:4),
a correcting rod and a supporting staff. One of these staves was called
Beauty, denoting the temple, which is called the beauty of
holiness and one of its gates beautiful, which Christ called
his Father's house, and for which he showed a great zeal when he
cleared it of the buyers and sellers; the other he called
Bands, denoting their civil state, and the incorporate society
of that nation, which Christ also took care of by preaching love and
peace among them. Christ, in his gospel, and in all he did among them,
consulted the advancement both of their civil and of their sacred
interests.
4. His execution of his office, as the chief Shepherd. He fed the
flock
(Zechariah 11:7),
and he displaced those under-shepherds that were false to their trust
(Zechariah 11:8):
Three shepherds I cut off in one month. Through the deficiency
and uncertainty of the history of the Jewish church, in its latter
ages, we know not what particular event this had its accomplishment in;
in general, it seems to be an act of power and justice for the
punishment of the sinful shepherds and the redress of the grievances of
the abused flock. Some understand it of the three orders of princes,
priests, and scribes or prophets, who, when Christ had finished his
work, were laid aside for their unfaithfulness. Others understand it of
the three sects among the Jews, of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians,
all whom Christ silenced in dispute
(Matthew 22:1-46)
and soon after cut off, all in a little time.
IV. Their enmity to Christ, and making themselves odious to him. He
came to his own, the sheep of his own pasture; it might have been
expected that between them and him there would be an entire affection,
as between the shepherd and his sheep; but they conducted themselves so
ill that his soul loathed them, was straitened towards
them (so it may be read); he intended them kindness, but could not do
them the kindness he intended them, because of their unbelief,
Matthew 13:58.
He was disappointed in them, discouraged concerning them,
grieved for them, not only for the shepherds, whom he cut off,
but for the people, whom Christ often looked upon with grief in his
heart and tears in his eyes. Their provocations even wore out his
patience, and he was weary of that faithless and perverse
generation. Their soul also it abhorred me; and therefore it was
that his soul loathed them; for, whatever estrangement there is between
God and man, it begins on man's side. The Jewish shepherds rejected
this chief Shepherd, as the Jewish builders rejected this chief corner
stone. They had indignation at Christ's doctrine and miracles,
and his interest in the people, to whom they did all they could to
render him odious, as they had made themselves odious to him. Note,
There is a mutual enmity between God and wicked people; they are
hateful to God and haters of God. Nothing speaks more the sinfulness
and misery of an unregenerate state than this does. The carnal mind,
the friendship of the world, are enmity to God, and God hates all the
workers of iniquity; and it is easy to foresee what this will end in,
if the quarrel be not taken up in time,
Isaiah 27:4,5.
V. Christ's rejecting them as incurable, and leaving them their house
desolate,
Matthew 23:38.
The things of their peace are now hidden from their eyes, because they
knew not the day of their visitation. Here we have,
1. The sentence of their rejection passed
(Zechariah 11:9):
"Then said I, I will not feed you. I will take no further care
of you; you shall not see me again; take your own course. As I
will not feed you, so I will not cure you; that that dieth, let it
die (the Shepherd will do nothing to save its forfeited life);
that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; that which will
make itself a prey to the wolf, let it be a prey, and let the rest so
far forget their own mild and gentle nature as to eat the flesh of
one another; let these sheep fight like dogs." Those that reject
Christ will be certainly and justly rejected by him, and then are
miserable of course.
2. A sign of it given
(Zechariah 11:10):
I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, in token of
this, that he would be no longer a shepherd to them, as the lord high
steward determines his commission by breaking his white staff, and as
Moses's breaking the tables of the law put a stop, for the present, to
the treaty between God and Israel. The breaking of this staff signified
the breaking of God's covenant which he had made with all the
people, the covenant of peculiarity made with all the tribes of
Israel, and all other people who, by being proselyted to their
religion, were incorporated into their nation. The Jewish church was
now stripped of all its glory; its crown was profaned and cast to the
ground, and all its honour laid in the dust; for God departed from it,
and would no more own it for his. When Christ told them plainly that
the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and
given to another people, then be broke the staff of
Beauty,
Matthew 21:43.
And it was broken in that day, though Jerusalem and the Jewish
nation held up forty years longer, yet from that day we may reckon the
staff of Beauty broken,
Zechariah 11:11.
And though the great men did not, or would not, understand it as a
divine sentence, but thought to put it by with a cold God forbid
(Luke 20:16),
yet the poor of the flock, the disciples of Christ, that
waited on him, and understood with what authority he spoke, and
could distinguish the voice of their Shepherd from that of a stranger,
knew that it was the word of the Lord, and trembled at it, and
were confident that it should not fall to the ground. Note, Christ is
waited on by the poor of the flock; he chose them to be with him, to be
his pupils, to be his witnesses; the poor received him and his gospel,
when those that had great possessions turned their backs upon him. And
those that wait upon Christ, that sit at his feet, to hear and receive
his words, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God,
John 7:17.
3. A further reason given for their rejection. It was said before,
Their souls abhorred him; and here we have an instance of it,
their buying and selling him for thirty pieces of silver, either thirty
Roman pence, or rather thirty Jewish shekels; this is here foretold in
somewhat obscure expressions, as it is fit that such particular
prophecies should be delivered, lest otherwise the plainness of the
prophecy might prevent the accomplishment of it. Here,
(1.) The Shepherd comes to them for his wages
(Zechariah 11:12):
"If you think good, give me my price; you are weary of me, pay
me off and discharge me; and, if not, forbear; if you be willing
to continue me longer in your service, I will continue, or, if to turn
me off without wages, I am content." Christ was no hireling, and yet
the labourer is worthy of his hire. Compare with this what Christ said
to Judas when he was going to sell him, "What thou doest do
quickly; be at a word with the chief priests; let them either take
the bargain or leave it,"
John 13:27.
Those that betray Christ are not forced to it; they might have chosen.
(2.) They value him at thirty pieces of silver. Many years'
service he had done them as a Shepherd, yet this is all they will now
turn him off with--"A goodly price that I with all my care and
pains was valued at by them." If Judas fixed this sum in his
demand, it is observable that his name was Judah, the same name
with that of the body of the people, for it was a national act; or, if
(as it rather seems) the chief priests pitched upon this sum in their
proffers, they were the representatives of the people; it was part of
the priest's office to put a value upon the devoted
things
(Leviticus 27:8),
and thus they valued the Lord Jesus. It was the ordinary price of a
slave,
Exodus 21:32.
Making light of Christ, and undervaluing the love of that great and
good Shepherd, are the ruin of multitudes, and justly so.
(3.) The silver being no way proportionable to his worth, it is
thrown to the potter with disdain: "Let him take it to buy clay
with, or for any use that a little money will serve to, for it is not
worth hoarding; it may be enough for a potter's stock, but not for the
pay of such a shepherd, much less for his purchase." So the prophet
cast the thirty pieces of silver to the potter in the house of the
Lord: "Let him take them, and do what he will with them." Now we
find a particular accomplishment of this in the history of Christ's
sufferings, and reference is had to this prophecy,
Matthew 27:9,10.
Thirty pieces of silver was the very sum for which Christ was
sold to the chief priests; the money, when Judas would not keep it, and
the chief priests would not take it back was laid out in the purchase
of the potter's field. Even that sudden resolve of the chief
priests was according to an ancient prophecy and the more ancient
counsel and foreknowledge of God.
4. The completing of their rejection in the cutting asunder of the
other staff,
Zechariah 11:14.
The former denoted the ruin of their church, by breaking the covenant
between God and them--that defaced their beauty; this denotes
the ruin of their state, by breaking the brotherhood between Judah and
Israel, by reviving animosities and contention among them, such as were
of old between Judah and Israel, the writing of whom as one stick in
the hand of the Lord was one of the blessings promised after their
return out of captivity,
Ezekiel 37:19.
But that union shall now be dissolved; they shall be crumbled into
parties and factions, exasperated one against another; and their
kingdom, being thus divided, shall be brought to desolation.
(1.) Nothing ruins a people so certainly, so inevitably, as the
breaking of the staff of Bands, and the weakening of the
brotherhood among them; for hereby they become an easy prey to the
common enemy.
(2.) This follows upon the dissolving of the covenant between God and
them, and the decay of religion among them. When iniquity abounds love
waxes cold. No wonder if those fall out among themselves that have
provoked God to fall out with them. When the staff of Beauty is broken
the staff of Bands will not hold long. An unchurched people will soon
be an undone people.
Judgments Predicted and Typified.
B. C. 510.
15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the
instruments of a foolish shepherd.
16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which
shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the
young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that
standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear
their claws in pieces.
17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword
shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be
clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
God, having shown the misery of this people in their being justly
abandoned by the good Shepherd, here shows their further misery in
being shamefully abused by a foolish shepherd. The prophet is himself
to personate and represent this pretended shepherd
(Zechariah 11:15):
Take unto thee the instruments or accoutrements of a foolish
shepherd, that are no way fit for the business, such a shepherd's
coat, and bag, and staff, as a foolish shepherd would appear in; for
such a shepherd shall be set over them
(Zechariah 11:16),
who, instead of protecting them, shall oppress them and do them
mischief.
1. They shall be under the inspection of unfaithful ministers. Their
scribes, and priests, and doctors of their law, shall bind heavy
burdens upon them, and grievous to be borne, and, with their traditions
imposed, shall make the ceremonial law much more a yoke than God had
made it. The description here given of the foolish shepherd suits very
well with the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees,
Matthew 23:2.
They shall be under the tyranny of unmerciful princes, that shall rule
them with rigour, and make their own land as much a house of bondage to
them as ever Egypt or Babylon was. When they had rejected him by
whom princes decree justice it was just that they should be turned
over to those who decree unrighteous decrees.
3. They shall be imposed upon and deluded by false Christs and false
prophets, as our Saviour foretold,
Matthew 24:5.
Many such there were, who by their seditious practices provoked the
Romans, and hastened the ruin of the Jewish nation; but it is
observable that they were never cheated by a counterfeit Messiah till
they had refused and rejected the true Messiah. Now observe,
I. What a curse this foolish shepherd should be to the people,
Zechariah 11:16.
God will, for their punishment, raise up a foolish
shepherd, who will not do the duty of a shepherd; he will not
visit those that are cut off, nor go after those that go astray,
nor seek those that are missing, to find them out and bring them home,
as the good shepherd does,
Matthew 18:12,13.
Their shepherds take no care of the young ones, that need their
care and are well worthy of it, as Christ does,
Isaiah 40:11.
They do not heal that which was broken, which was worried
and torn, but let it die of its bruises, when a little thing, in time,
would have saved it. They do not feed those who, through
weakness, stand still, and are ready to faint, and cannot get
forward, but leave them behind, let who will take them up; they do not
carry that which stands still (so some read it); they
never do any thing to support the weak and comfort the
feeble-minded; but, on the contrary,
1. They are luxurious themselves: They eat of the flesh of the
fat; they will have of the best for themselves; and, like that
wicked servant that said, My lord delays his coming, they
eat and drink with the drunken, and serve their own
bellies.
2. They are barbarous to the flock. Their passions are as ill-governed
as their appetites, for, when they are in a rage against any of the
flock, they tear their very claws in pieces by
over-driving them; they beat their hoofs; they smite their fellow
servants. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is such a
child!
II. What a curse this foolish shepherd should bring upon himself
(Zechariah 11:17):
Woe to the idol-shepherd, who, like an idol, has eyes and sees
not, who, like an idol, receives abundance of respect and homage from
the people and the chief of their offerings, but neither can nor will
do them any kindness. He leaves the flock when they most need
his care, leaves them destitute, and flees, because he is a
hireling; his doom is that the sword of God's justice shall
be upon his arm and his right eye, so that he shall quite
lose the use of both. His arm shall wither and be dried
up, so that he who would not help his friends when it was required
shall not know how to help himself; his right eye shall be utterly
darkened, that he shall not discern the danger that his flock is
in, nor know which way to look for relief. This was fulfilled when
Christ said to the Pharisees, I have come that those who see may be
made blind,
John 9:39.
Those that have gifts which qualify them to do good, if they do not do
good with them, shall be deprived of them; those that should have been
workmen, but were slothful and would do nothing, will justly have their
arm dried up; and those that should have been watchmen, but were sleepy
and would never look about them, will justly have their eye
blinded.
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Zechariah' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
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