Commentary - Zechariah 11:7-14

Bird's-eye view

This section of Zechariah is a prophetic sign-act of the most profound sort. It is a dramatic and tragic pantomime of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to the people of Israel. Zechariah is commanded by God to play the part of the Good Shepherd, who comes to care for a flock that has been abused by corrupt leaders and is consequently "doomed to slaughter." This Good Shepherd, however, is ultimately rejected by the very flock He came to save. His wages are insultingly calculated at the price of a gored slave, and the covenantal bonds that held the nation together and protected it from its enemies are formally and publicly shattered. This is not just a general prediction of trouble; it is a detailed preview of the rejection of the Messiah. The actions Zechariah performs here, taking up staffs of "Favor" and "Union," being loathed by the flock, having his work valued at thirty pieces of silver, and breaking the staffs, find their ultimate and final fulfillment in the life, ministry, and betrayal of Jesus, and the subsequent catastrophic judgment that fell upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

What we are reading is, in effect, the script for a divine courtroom drama. The Shepherd of Israel presents Himself to His people, and their response is recorded. That response constitutes the grounds for the covenant lawsuit that God brings against them. The breaking of the staffs is the audible crack of the gavel, signifying that the sentence has been passed. This is a terrifying passage because it demonstrates that God’s gracious initiatives can be, and are, rejected by men, and that such rejection has devastating historical consequences.

Outline

Context In Zechariah

Zechariah 9 and 10 were filled with glorious promises of the coming King, humble and riding on a donkey, but a victorious King who would bring salvation and gather His people. Chapter 11 provides the stark and tragic counterpoint. It answers the question: what happens when this promised King arrives and His own people refuse Him? This chapter functions as the hinge between the promise of the Messiah's first coming and the prophecies of His second coming and ultimate victory found in chapters 12-14. Before the final glory, there must be a reckoning for the rejection. The judgment described here, symbolized by the breaking of the staffs, is the necessary prelude to the ultimate refining and salvation of God's people. It provides the covenantal justification for the period of hardship and judgment that would fall upon the generation that rejected their Shepherd-King.

Key Issues

The Shepherd's Contemptible Paycheck

One of the sharpest points in this whole prophecy is the valuation of the Shepherd's labor. After all His work, He asks for His wages, and they weigh out thirty shekels of silver. According to the Law of Moses (Exodus 21:32), this was the compensation price for a slave who had been gored by an ox. It was a contemptuous, insulting price. This is not just a random number; it is a calculated statement of worth. The leaders of the flock looked at the Good Shepherd, the very incarnation of Yahweh, and valued Him at the price of a dead slave. And God's response is one of searing, divine sarcasm: "Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them."

This finds its direct and infamous fulfillment in the New Testament. The chief priests, the corrupt shepherds of Israel, paid Judas Iscariot thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus (Matt 26:15). When Judas, in his pathetic remorse, threw the money back into the temple, the priests, in their fastidious hypocrisy, refused to put the "blood money" into the treasury. So what did they do? They bought the potter's field with it (Matt 27:7). The prophecy was fulfilled down to the last detail. The price of the Shepherd was used to buy a boneyard, a place for broken pots, a fitting symbol for the broken and discarded covenant people who had so valued their King.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 So I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor, and the other I called Union; so I shepherded the flock.

Zechariah, at God's command, steps into the role of the true Shepherd. The flock is described in two ways: they are "doomed to slaughter" because of the corrupt leadership that has been fleecing them, and they are the "afflicted of the flock," the poor and humble who were suffering under this misrule. This is a perfect description of Israel at the time of Christ's advent. The Lord came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, a people oppressed by their religious leaders. The Shepherd takes up two staffs, the tools of his trade. These are not just sticks; they are symbols of His royal and pastoral authority. He names them, giving them covenantal significance. The first is Favor (or Grace, or Beauty). This represents God's gracious covenant protection over His people, holding back the Gentile nations from devouring them. The second is Union (or Bonds). This represents the internal covenantal unity of the nation, the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.

The true Shepherd acts decisively. He removes "three shepherds" in a very short time. Commentators have spilled gallons of ink trying to identify these three shepherds as specific historical figures. But it is more likely that this refers to the three main offices of leadership in Israel: prophet, priest, and king. In His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ rendered the corrupt leadership of Israel completely obsolete. He exposed the hypocrisy of the priests, confounded the wisdom of the scribes (the prophetic office, debased), and presented Himself as the true King, rendering the Herodian pretenders and the Sanhedrin illegitimate. His ministry was a swift and total condemnation of their authority. The feeling was mutual. His soul was impatient with their corruption, and their souls detested His righteousness. He was a light that exposed their darkness, and they hated Him for it.

9 Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who remain consume one another’s flesh.”

Because of their rejection, the Shepherd formally resigns His post. This is a terrifying moment. The one who came to save them now abandons them to their chosen fate. "I will not shepherd you." He hands them over to the consequences of their own sin. The language here is that of a covenant curse. He consigns them to death, destruction, and a horrific internal collapse. "Let those who remain consume one another's flesh." This was literally fulfilled in the ghastly siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when, according to Josephus, the starvation within the city walls was so severe that people resorted to cannibalism. When the Good Shepherd is rejected, the wolves are not far behind.

10 And I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples.

Here is the first great act of covenantal judgment. The Shepherd takes the staff named Favor and snaps it in two. The meaning is stated explicitly: this was to "break my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples." This was not the saving covenant of grace, but rather God's providential covenant of protection. For centuries, God had placed a hedge of protection around Israel, restraining the surrounding Gentile nations. With the breaking of this staff, that protection is removed. The divine restraint is lifted. This act gave the Roman armies, the "peoples," the divine permission to come and execute God's judgment on the nation that had rejected His Son.

11 So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of Yahweh.

The breaking of the covenant was not a secret. It happened "on that day," a specific point in time. And it was understood by the true remnant, the "afflicted of the flock who were watching." This refers to the disciples and the early Christians, the humble ones who recognized Jesus as the Shepherd. They saw His rejection, they heard His prophecies of Jerusalem's destruction (as in the Olivet Discourse), and when the Roman armies surrounded the city, they knew exactly what was happening. They understood that this was not a geopolitical accident, but rather the "word of Yahweh," the fulfillment of this very prophecy. They knew it was time to flee the city, which they did, and were thus spared the slaughter.

12 And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages.

The scene is one of breathtaking audacity. The Shepherd, having been rejected, asks to be paid for His work. The tone is almost dismissive: "If you think it's a good idea... but if not, don't bother." He is holding their contempt up for all to see. Their response is the ultimate insult. They conduct a formal transaction, weighing out His payment. Not a king's ransom, not an honorable wage, but thirty shekels of silver. As noted earlier, this was the price of a slave killed by a neighbor's ox. They looked at the Lord of Glory and valued Him as damaged property.

13 Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

God the Father speaks, and His voice drips with holy irony. "That valuable price," He calls it, "that magnificent sum." He commands that this insulting wage be thrown "to the potter." The potter's house was often near the temple, and it was a place of broken, discarded clay. The money is thrown down in the temple, "the house of Yahweh," the very place where the corrupt shepherds who engineered this rejection held court. The whole transaction is a public demonstration of their spiritual bankruptcy. They paid the price of a slave for the Son of God, and that blood money would fittingly end up buying a field of broken shards, a graveyard for Gentiles.

14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

The second judicial act follows the first. Having removed the external protection, the Shepherd now shatters the internal cohesion of the nation. He breaks the staff called Union. This symbolized the "brotherhood between Judah and Israel." While the nation had been politically divided in the past, there remained a covenantal and ethnic identity. The breaking of this staff signifies the end of that national solidarity. This was fulfilled in the factionalism and civil war that raged within the walls of Jerusalem during the Roman siege. The Jews, instead of uniting against their common enemy, slaughtered one another in the streets. The brotherhood was utterly broken, just as the Shepherd had declared.

Application

The primary application of this passage is to see Christ in it, and to marvel at the precision of God's prophetic word. Hundreds of years before the fact, the entire sordid affair of Christ's rejection and betrayal was written down. This ought to give us tremendous confidence in the authority and divine authorship of Scripture. God is not making it up as He goes along. History is His story, and it unfolds according to His script.

Secondly, this passage is a stark warning against the sin of formalism and hypocrisy. The shepherds of Israel had a religion that was all form and no substance. They had the temple, the sacrifices, the titles, but they did not know their God. When God showed up in the flesh, they valued Him at the price of a slave. We must constantly be on guard against a religion that is merely external. It is possible to have all the trappings of Christianity, to go to church, to tithe, to use all the right jargon, and yet to have a heart that loathes the true Shepherd. The question for us is not what price we would have paid, but what price we pay now. Do we give Christ the preeminence in all things, or do we value Him cheaply, fitting Him into our lives only where it is convenient?

Finally, we see the kindness and severity of God. To the "afflicted of the flock," those who recognized the Shepherd's voice, there was deliverance and salvation. They saw the judgment coming and were spared. But to those who rejected Him, there was a terrifying, flesh-eating judgment. The same choice is before us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. If we hear His voice and follow Him, we have nothing to fear. But if we despise and reject Him, there is nowhere to hide. To reject the Shepherd is to invite the wolves.