Zechariah 11:5
11:5 Those who buy them 1 slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.
Zechariah 11:16-17
11:16 Indeed, I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not take heed to the sheep headed to slaughter, will not seek the scattered, and will not heal the injured. 2 Moreover, he will not nourish the one that is healthy but instead will eat the meat of the fat sheep 3 and tear off their hooves.
11:17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons the flock!
May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye!
May his arm wither completely away,
and his right eye become completely blind!”
1 sn The expression those who buy them appears to be a reference to the foreign nations to whom Israel’s own kings “sold” their subjects. Far from being good shepherds, then, they were evil and profiteering. The whole section (vv. 4-14) refers to the past when the Lord, the Good Shepherd, had in vain tried to lead his people to salvation and life.
2 tn Heb “the broken” (so KJV, NASB; NRSV “the maimed”).
3 tn Heb “the fat [ones].” Cf. ASV “the fat sheep”; NIV “the choice sheep.”