Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 11:8

"And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me." — Zechariah 11:8 (ASV)

And I cut off three shepherds in one month—Jerome: “I have read in someone’s commentary that the shepherds, cut off in the indignation of the Lord, are to be understood as priests, false prophets, and kings of the Jews. After the passion of Christ, they were all cut off at one time. Jeremiah speaks of them: ‘The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew Me not; the pastors also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things which do not profit’ (Jeremiah 2:8). And again, ‘As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets’ (Jeremiah 2:26). And, ‘they said, Come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet’ (Jeremiah 18:18).”

Theodoret: “He speaks of the kings of the Jews, prophets, and priests; for by these three orders they were shepherded.” Cyril: “The true and good Shepherd having already been pointed out, it was right and necessary that the hirelings and false shepherds—the guides of the Jews in the law—should be removed. I deem the three shepherds to be those who exercised the legal priesthood, those appointed as judges of the people, and the interpreters of Scripture, that is, the lawyers. For these also fed Israel. Those who had the glory of the priesthood were from the tribe of Levi only; and of them Malachi says, ‘The priest’s lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth’ (Malachi 2:7). But those who received authority to judge were also selected, yet were appointed from every tribe. In the same way, the lawyers were always assessors to the judges and adduced the words of the law as proof in every matter.”

But we will find that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressly pronounced woe on the Pharisees, scribes, and lawyers. For He said, ‘Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees’ (Luke 11:44). And when one of the lawyers then answered Him, saying, ‘Master, so saying Thou reproachest us also,’ He said, ‘Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers’ (Luke 11:45–46).

These “three Shepherds” then—priests, judges, and lawyers—who remained in their own orders and places until the coming of Christ, were very justly taken away in one month. For since ‘they killed the Prince of life’ (Acts 3:15), they were also mown down because of this, and that in the month of the first fruits, in which Emmanuel endured being slain for us. They indeed remained administering Israel, even after the Savior’s Cross, through the long-suffering and compassion of Almighty God calling them to repentance. However, in the sentence passed by God, they were taken away at that time when they delivered the Savior and Redeemer of all to the Cross. They were taken away then in one month—Nisan, A.D. 33. The three offices—King, Divine Teacher, Priest—were to be united in Christ: they might have been held under Him; those who rejected them in Him forfeited them themselves. These, then, He made to disappear, effaced them from the earth.

And My soul was straightened—For them. It is used of the divine grief at the misery of His people. “And their soul abhorred Me, nauseated Me.” Kimchi: “When it is said, ‘Their soul also abhorreth Me,’ the meaning is, ‘My soul did not loathe them first, but their soul first despised Me; therefore, My Soul abhorred them.’” The soul that drives away God’s good Spirit comes at last to loathe Him and the thought and mention of Him.