Zechariah 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.

Ge 37:26-28; De 29:19-21; 2Ki 4:1; Ne 5:8; Jer 2:3; Jer 23:1,2; Jer 50:7; Eze 22:25-27; Eze 34:2,3,10; Eze 34:4,6,18,19,21; Ho 12:8; Mic 3:1-3,9-12; Mt 21:12,13; Mt 23:14; Joh 10:1,12,13; Joh 16:2; 1Ti 6:5-10; 2Pe 2:3; Re 18:13

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.