Shepherds with no concern for the good of the flock
11
📚Open your doors, O Lebanon,that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 📚Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen,
because the mighty trees
are ruined.
Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest
has come down.
3 📚There is a sound of the wailing
of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined;
a sound of the roaring of young lions,
for the pride of Jordan is ruined.
11:1-3 This seems to indicate an army invading Israel from the north – from Lebanon through Bashan east of the Jordan and then into the region of the Jordan – destroying as they come. This is in great contrast with the preceding chapter, but vs 4-17 give the reason for it. The people of Israel were going to reject their coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and would be punished for it. See Matt 24:1-2; Luke 19:41-44; 21:23-24.⚜
4 📚Thus says the LORD my God: “Feed the flock designated for slaughter 📖. 5 📚Those who buy them 📖 slaughter them, and consider themselves not guilty, and those who sell 📖 them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD 📖! For I am rich!’ and their own shepherds take no pity on them. 6 📚For I will no longer have pity for the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD, but, see, I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king; and they will attack the land 📖, and I will not deliver them out of their hand”.
7 📚So I 📖 fed the flock designated for slaughter, especially the poor of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs. One I called Favour 📖, and the other I called Union 📖, and I fed the flock. 8 📚In one month I got rid of the three shepherds; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also hated me 📖.
9 📚Then I said, “I will not feed you. Let the dying die, and let what is to be cut off be cut off, and let all the rest eat each others flesh”.
11:9 This speaks of God’s judgment on a stubborn rebellious people who would not listen to Him. Compare Luke 19:41-44.⚜
10 📚And I took my staff called Favour, and cut it in two, to break my covenant 📖 which I had made with all the people. 11 📚And it was broken on that day. And so the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
Prophecy about 30 pieces of silver
12 📚And I said to them, “If you think it is good, give me my pay; but if not, withhold it 📖”. So they weighed out as my pay thirty pieces of silver. 13 📚And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price 📖 at which they priced me!” And I took the thirty pieces of silver 📖 and threw them to the potter 📖 in the house of the LORD.
14 📚Then I cut my other staff, called Union, in two 📖, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
The shepherd who will persecute the flock
15 📚And the LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 📚For, see, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those cut off, or search for the young, or heal the broken, or feed the one standing. But he will eat the flesh of the fat ones, and tear their hooves in pieces.
17 📚“Woe to the worthless shepherd
who leaves the flock!
The sword will strike
at his arm, and at his right eye.
His arm will be completely withered,
and his right eye will be
totally blinded”.
11:15-17 Because Israel rejected Christ the good Shepherd, God in judgment will see to it that they get a very bad shepherd. Israel has had many worthless shepherds. But since the Lord here speaks of only one this one may be the final “worthless shepherd”, the coming antichrist, or his helper. See John 5:43; 2 Thess 2:3-4; Rev 13 chapter. In contrast with the good Shepherd Who gave His life for the sheep (John 10:11-15) the coming worthless shepherd will try to tear life from the sheep. But God will judge and punish him in due course – v 17.⚜