Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 11:10

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

And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it asunder — He did not chasten His people as He had previously, while still retaining His relationship with them, for such chastening is an austere form of love. By breaking the staff of His tender love, He signified that this relationship was at an end.

That I might dissolve My covenant which I had made with all the people — Rather, this means “with all the peoples,” that is, with all nations. Although it is often said of Israel that they broke the covenant of God (Leviticus 26:15; Deuteronomy 31:16, 31:20; Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 11:10, 31:32; Ezekiel 16:59, 44:7), when this language is used of God, it is only to deny that He would break it (Leviticus 26:44; Judges 2:1; and strongly, Jeremiah 33:20–21), or in prayers asking Him not to break it (Jeremiah 14:21).

In this passage, it is not absolutely the covenant with His whole people that He broke. It is, rather, so to speak, a covenant with the nations in favor of Israel, permitting certain actions and forbidding others concerning His people.

Thus, God had said concerning the times of Christ: “In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of the heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground” (Hosea 2:18; verse 20 in Hebrew); and, “I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land” (Ezekiel 34:25); and in Job, “thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee” (Job 5:23).

This covenant He willed to annihilate. He would no longer interpose, as He had said previously, “I will not deliver from their hand” (Zechariah 11:6). Consequently, whoever wished could do what they wanted. The Romans first, and nearly all nations since, have inflicted on the Jews what they willed; and Muslims too have repaid them for their scorn towards Jesus.