1Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may consume your cedars.
2Cry out, cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the magnificent trees are destroyed. Cry out, oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been cut down.
3I hear the shepherds crying loudly because their glory is destroyed! I hear young lions roaring loudly because the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4Yahweh my God says, "Tend the flock meant for slaughter."
5Their buyers kill them and are not punished. Those who sell them say, 'Praise Yahweh, for I have become rich!' And their own shepherds do not feel sorry for them.
6For I will no longer feel sorry for the people of the land," says Yahweh. "But look, I will hand everyone over to their neighbor and to their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue them from their grasp."
7So I tended the flock meant for slaughter, especially the most mistreated among them. I took two staffs. I named one 'Favor' and the other 'Union,' and I tended the flock.
8I got rid of three shepherds in one month because I was tired of them, and they also hated me.
9Then I said, "I will no longer feed you. Let what is meant to die, die; let what is meant to be cut off, be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other's flesh."
10I took my staff called Favor and broke it into pieces, to cancel the agreement I had made with all the people.
11It was broken that day; and so the poor members of the flock who listened to me knew that it was Yahweh's message.
12I told them, "If you think it's fair, give me my payment; if not, keep it." So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my payment.
13Yahweh told me, "Throw it to the potter—that handsome price they valued me at!" So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in Yahweh's house.
14Then I broke my other staff, named Union, to break the unity between Judah and Israel.
15Yahweh told me, "Take up the equipment of a foolish shepherd once again.
16Because, listen, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the lost sheep, nor seek out the scattered ones, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy. Instead, he will eat the meat of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves.
17How terrible for the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! A sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will completely wither, and his right eye will be totally blind!"