Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Zechariah 11

Desolation of Israel

Zechariah 11:¹ Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire (judgment, military, disasters) may devour your cedars (leaders).

Zechariah 11:² Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the thick forest has come down.

• The thick forest is masses of people. The leaders are: the cedars and the oaks which have fallen (the strong, tall trees).
• Zechariah sees a landscape of ruin.

Zechariah 11:³ There is the sound of wailing shepherds! For their glory is in ruins.

• The shepherds are leaders of the Jews.

There is the sound of roaring lions!
For the pride (Or floodplain, thicket where lions hid amongst the reeds) of the Jordan is in ruins.

• Predators lie in wait to devour their prey.

Prophecy of the Shepherds

Zechariah 11:⁴ Thus says the Lord my God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm), “Feed the flock for slaughter,

Zechariah 11:⁵ whose owners (Jewish leaders) slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.

Zechariah 11:⁶ For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ). “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack (Lit. strike) the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

Zechariah 11:⁷ So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty (Or Grace), and the other I called Bonds (Or Unity); and I fed the flock.

Zechariah 11:⁸ I dismissed (Or destroyed, lit. cut off) the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.

• Three signifies a “trinity”.
  • God is the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
    A visual representation of the Trinity is like one atom with three electrons. The three electrons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
    The center, or the nucleus, of the atom is the character of God, also known as the seven spirits of God.
    Isaiah 11 lists the first six, and John lists the seventh: note the pattern of six, then a separated, or Holy, Seven. Six and One is a common pattern, but Three, One, and Three is the most prevalent.
  • The Trinity is “ONE” Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One (‘eḥāḏ Strong’s H259)!” Its root meaning: ‘āḥaḏ Strong’s h258.
    
    
  • “To be One: in character, purpose, and intent.”
    I John 5:7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word (the Son), and the Holy Spirit; and these three are One.
    
    
  • See Topic and Illustration: “Trinity”
    
• The three “shepherds” are the kings (The Leaders), the priests (The Services), and the prophets (Communicators of God’s Word).
• The three shepherds during the future Seven-Year Tribulation would be the unholy trinity: Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet.

Zechariah 11:⁹ Then I said, “I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.”

• There is nothing worth saving, and there is nothing the shepherd can do to make it better.

Zechariah 11:¹⁰ And I took my staff, Beauty (Grace), and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

• The beauty God had with the Jews is broken.

• The old covenant was broken when Jesus made a new covenant at the Last Supper.
  
  • Daniel 9:26 “And after the sixty-two weeks (the authentic) Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince (Titus as a shadow of the Antichrist) who is to come (the Seven-Year Tribulation) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood (an overflowing army), and till the end of the war desolations are determined.

Zechariah 11:¹¹ So it was broken on that day. Thus, the poor (most needy) of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the Word of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ).

• The poor of the flock are those who welcomed Him as King when He made His triumphal entry.
  
• The poor of the flock during the Tribulation will be the remnant of Jews.
  • Judas tried to return the 20 pieces of silver before he hung himself. The Priests who rejected him used the silver to buy a potter’s field for burying the poor.

THE FIRST ADVENT OF JESUS (HIS FIRST MINISTRY ON EARTH IN 31 AD)

Zechariah 11:¹² Then I (Judas) said to them (the Priests), “If it is agreeable to you (good in your sight), give me (Judas) my wages; and if not, refrain (don’t).” So they weighed out for my (Judas’) wages (for taking them to Jesus in betrayal) thirty pieces of silver (in agreement).

• Prophecy Alert! Fulfilled by the words of Judas when he bargained with the Priests to betray Jesus.
• See Topic: thirty pieces of silver

Zechariah 11:¹³ And the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) said to me (Judas), “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on Me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) for the potter.

Jesus, who was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver IS Yᵊhōvâ.

• Prophecy Alert! Fulfilled when Judas threw the silver at the feet of the priests, in the temple treasury, before he hung himself. The priests, in turn, used the money to purchase a potter’s field.
  
• The potter’s field was used to bury the poor of the flock (Jews).

Zechariah 11:¹⁴ Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds (Or Unity), that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

THE ANTICHRIST AND THE COMING SECOND ADVENT OF JESUS (AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION)

Zechariah 11:¹⁵ And the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) said to me, “Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.

Zechariah 11:¹⁶ For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land (The Antichrist) who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces. (The Antichrist, the false and mimic, Messiah)

• Instead of praying for the flock, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who preys on the flock.
  Instead of feeding the sheep, he is fleecing the sheep.
  
• John 5:43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

Zechariah 11:¹⁷ “Woe to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves (deserts) the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”

• The worthless shepherd is the coming Antichrist, the one of whom Jesus says:
  • John 5:43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

• The Antichrist will rule the world from Jerusalem during the last half of the Seven-Year Tribulation.

• These verses testify to how He will betray the Jews (The result is possibly an assassination.) However; since he is indwelt by Satan, he will have a resurrection to mimic the resurrection of Jesus, but it will be a disfigured resurrection. In the book of Revelation, he is no longer known as “the beast”, but “the image of the beast”.

• Everything about him mimics the true Messiah: He is a shepherd, but a worthless shepherd. He is a branch, but an abominable branch. He is raised from the dead, but he does not have a glorified body, and it may be that he becomes a monster of technology.
  
  • See Topic: The Mimic Messiah
    
  • The Seven Years of Tribulation mirrors:
    
    • The seven days of a groom’s wedding feast. To understand this concept of the groom read “Jacob’s Two Wives”.
      See Topic: God’s Two Agendas and Jacob’s Two Wives
      
    • The seven days of Jesus’ affliction after His triumphal entry until His resurrection. (For each day, one year. Numbers 14:34)
      
    • The seven days of affliction between the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Atonement in the Jewish “High Holy Days” or “The Days of Awe”.

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Conclusion: A comparison of two shepherds: One who is the Good Shepherd and one who is the worthless shepherd. One who is the authentic Messiah and one who is the mimic messiah. The first Shepherd is Jesus’ first advent to earth. The first Shepherd will return at the end of the second evil shepherd’s rule in Jerusalem to slay him before taking His own rightful place as King of the Jews.

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• Beautiful Commentary by GotQuestions.org
  
  In Hebrew culture, thirty pieces of silver was not a lot of money. In fact, it was the exact price paid to the master of a slave if and when his slave was gored by an ox (Exodus 21:32). The slave’s death was compensated by the thirty pieces of silver. There are two other places in the Bible that specifically mention the amount of thirty pieces of silver, and they are directly linked. The first passage is in Zechariah, which contains a prophecy that is later fulfilled in the book of Matthew.
  
  Leading up to the prophecy of the thirty pieces of silver is a description of a strange episode in Zechariah’s life. God had the prophet Zechariah play the part of a shepherd and care for a flock “doomed to slaughter” (Zechariah 11:4–14). God used this to illustrate a prophetic judgment against Israel for crucifying Christ, predicting the fall of Israel in AD 70 and the subsequent scattering of the nation. There are several elements in this passage that point to it as a prophecy about Jesus. First, Zechariah says he “got rid of the three shepherds” of the doomed flock (verse 8). The “three shepherds” are probably a reference to the three religious offices during Jesus’ day that worked to condemn Jesus: the elders, the scribes, and the chief priests (Matthew 16:21). Second, Zechariah breaks his two shepherding staffs. One is named Favor and is broken to symbolize the breaking of the Mosaic Covenant by the disobedient people and God’s setting aside His favor or providential care to allow judgment to come upon them (Zechariah 11:10). The second staff, named Union, is broken to represent the breaking up of the nation by the Romans.
  
  Another prophetic reference is found in the thirty pieces of silver given to Zechariah after his work as a shepherd. He went to those he worked for and asked them to pay him what they thought he was worth. They gave him thirty pieces of silver, which he sarcastically calls a “handsome price” because it was such a small amount (Zechariah 11:13)—the price paid for a slave’s accidental death. The employers meant to insult Zechariah with this amount of money. Returning the insult, God tells Zechariah to “throw it to the potter,” and Zechariah tossed the money into the house of the Lord to be given to the potter.
  
  These actions are a shockingly accurate and detailed prophecy, for when Judas Iscariot bargained with the leaders of Israel to betray the Lord Jesus, he asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” The murderous cabal then counted out for Judas “thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:15). That’s all they considered Jesus to be worth.
  
  Later, Judas was overcome with guilt for betraying Jesus, and, fulfilling Zechariah’s vivid prophecy, he threw the thirty silver coins into the temple (Matthew 27:3–5). The Jewish leaders used the thirty pieces of silver to buy a field from a potter, again as Zechariah had predicted (Matthew 27:6–10). It was in that field that Judas hanged himself.

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