Charles Ellicott Commentary Zechariah 11:4-17

"Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah; but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor`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. So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the 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. And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then said I, I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them that are left eat every one the flesh of another. And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. And it was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that gave heed unto me knew that it was the word of Jehovah. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty [pieces] of silver. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty [pieces] of silver, and cast them unto the potter, in the house of Jehovah. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And Jehovah said unto me, Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those that are cut off, neither will seek those that are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat [sheep], and will tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the worthless 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." — Zechariah 11:4-17 (ASV)

The great difficulty of this passage, which is metaphorical and symbolic throughout, is that hardly any clue to its interpretation is given to us. Thus, commentators cannot agree on whether the shepherds spoken of are heathen or native rulers. And on this point, the whole nature of the interpretation turns.

Guided by the language of Zechariah 11:6, 10, we conclude that the shepherds represent foreign oppressors. Our prophet seems to have had Ezekiel 37:16-22 in mind when he, probably in a vision, performed the symbolic acts of the two shepherds; but he also had Ezekiel 34 in view.

In feeding the flock, he actually, though undoubtedly unconsciously, represents not only God, who Himself would feed the flock (Ezekiel 34:11–12, 15-16), but also that ideal shepherd, “my servant David,” whom He would set up as “one shepherd over them” (Ezekiel 34:23–24). At the same time, he retains his old imagery from Zechariah 10:3 and speaks of the foreign oppressors as shepherds. The prophet’s historical starting point seems to be the same here as in Zechariah 9:10, though his goal is more distant.