[1] Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! [2]
Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are
ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! [3]
Hark, the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled! Hark, the
roar of the lions, for the jungle of the Jordan is laid waste! [4] Thus
said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
[5] Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them
say, `Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich'; and their own shepherds
have no pity on them. [6] For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants
of this land, says the LORD. Lo, I will cause men to fall each into the
hand of his shepherd, and each into the hand of his king; and they shall
crush the earth, and I will deliver none from their hand." [7] So I became
the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in
the sheep. And I took two staffs; one I named Grace, the other I named
Union. And I tended the sheep. [8] In one month I destroyed the three
shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. [9]
So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what
is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour
the flesh of one another." [10] And I took my staff Grace, and I broke it,
annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. [11] So it
was annulled on that day, and the traffickers in the sheep, who were
watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. [12] Then I said to
them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them."
And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. [13] Then the
LORD said to me, "Cast it into the treasury"--the lordly price at which I
was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them
into the treasury in the house of the LORD. [14] Then I broke my second
staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. [15] Then
the LORD said to me, "Take once more the implements of a worthless
shepherd. [16] For lo, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not
care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or
nourish the sound, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even
their hoofs. [17] Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May
the sword smite his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!"
