[1] Let your doors be open, O Lebanon, so that fire may be burning among
your cedars. [2] Give a cry of grief, O fir-tree, for the fall of the
cedar, because the great ones have been made low: give cries of grief, O
you oaks of Bashan, for the strong trees of the wood have come down. [3]
The sound of the crying of the keepers of the flock! for their glory is
made waste: the sound of the loud crying of the young lions! for the pride
of Jordan is made waste. [4] This is what the Lord my God has said: Take
care of the flock of death; [5] Whose owners put them to death and have no
sense of sin; and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be
praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock have no pity
for them. [6] For I will have no more pity for the people of the land, says
the Lord; but I will give up everyone into his neighbour's hand and into
the hand of his king: and they will make the land waste, and I will not
keep them safe from their hands. [7] So I took care of the flock of death,
for those who made profit out of the flock; and I took for myself two rods,
naming one Beautiful, and the other Bands; and I took care of the flock.
[8] And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the flock; for my
soul was tired of them, and their souls were disgusted with me. [9] And I
said, I will not take care of you: If death comes to any, let death be its
fate; if any is cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest take one
another's flesh for food. [10] And I took my rod Beautiful, cutting it in
two, so that the Lord's agreement, which he had made with all the peoples,
might be broken. [11] And it was broken on that day: and the sheep-traders,
who were watching me, were certain that it was the word of the Lord. [12]
And I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my payment; and if
not, do not give it. So they gave me my payment by weight, thirty shekels
of silver. [13] And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the
price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty shekels of
silver and put them into the store-house in the house of the Lord. [14]
Then I took my other rod, the one named Bands, cutting it in two, so that
the relation of brothers between Judah and Israel might be broken. [15] And
the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of
sheep. [16] For see, I will put a sheep-keeper over the land, who will have
no care for that which is cut off, and will not go in search of the
wanderers, or make well what is broken, and he will not give food to that
which is ill, but he will take for his food the flesh of the fat, and let
their feet be broken. [17] A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from
the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will
become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.
