Desolation of Israel
1 Openyour doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for thecedar has fallen,
Because the mightytreesare ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
# For the thick forest has come down.
3 Thereisthe sound of wailingshepherds!
For their glory is in ruins.
Thereisthe sound of roaring lions!
For the pride of the Jordan is in ruins.
Prophecy of the Shepherds
4 Thus says theLordmy God, “Feed the flock for slaughter,
5 whose owners slaughter them andfeel no guilt; those who sell themsay, ‘Blessed be theLord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds donot pity them.
6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says theLord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliverthemfrom their hand.”
7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particularthe poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.
8 I dismissed the three shepherdsin one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then I said, “I will not feed you.Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.”
10 And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was broken on that day. Thusthe poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that itwasthe word of theLord.
12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, givememy wages; and if not, refrain.” So theyweighed out for my wages thirtypiecesof silver.
13 And theLordsaid to me, “Throw it to thepotter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirtypiecesof silver and threw them into the house of theLordfor the potter.
14 Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 And theLordsaid to me,“Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.
16 For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the landwhowill not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves inpieces.
17 “Woeto the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A swordshallbeagainst his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”