1Open your doors, Lebanon, so that the fire may burn up your cedars.
2Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen; the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has come down.
3Listen: the shepherds are wailing, for their glory is ruined. Listen: young lions are roaring, for the pride of Jordan is ruined.
4This is what the LORD my God says: "Feed the flock that is marked for slaughter."
5Their owners kill them and do not count themselves guilty. Those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich.' And their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6"For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land, says the LORD. Look, I will hand over every one of them into his neighbour's power, and into the power of his king. They will crush the land, and I will not rescue anyone out of their hand."
7So I fed the flock marked for slaughter, even you, the poor of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. One I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8In one month I cut off three shepherds. I grew sick of them, and they also hated me.
9Then I said, "I will not feed you. Let the one that is dying die, and the one that is to be cut off be cut off. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh."
10Then I took my staff Beauty and cut it in two, to break the covenant I had made with all the peoples.
11It was broken that day. So the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that this was the word of the LORD.
12I said to them, "If you think it good, give me my wages; and if not, do not." So they weighed out my wages: thirty pieces of silver.
13And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter - that fine price at which they valued me." So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
14Then I cut my other staff, Bands, in two, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15And the LORD said to me, "Take up again the tools of a foolish shepherd."
16For look, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those that are lost. He will not look for the young one, nor heal the one that is broken, nor feed the one that is standing still. But he will eat the flesh of the fat ones and tear off their hoofs.
17"Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock. The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be completely dried up, and his right eye will be made totally blind."