God announces punishment of the unrepentant
1 - Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, that fire may consume thy cedars.
2 - Groan, O cypress, for the cedar is fallen, for the mighty are destroyed; I groaned, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the strong wood is brought down.
3 - Shepherd's howling voice! for his glory is destroyed; a voice of the roaring of the sons of lions, because the pride of the Jordan was destroyed.
4 - Thus saith the LORD my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,
5 - Whose possessors do slay them, and hold no guilt; and whose sellers say, Praise the LORD, for I am rich; and their shepherds have no mercy on them.
6 - Surely I will have no more mercy upon the inhabitants of this land, saith the LORD; but, behold, I will deliver the men every man into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; they shall bruise the earth, and I will not save them out of their hand.
7 - And I have fed the flock of the slaughter, the poor sheep of the flock. I took two sticks for myself: the one I called Grace, and the other I called Union; and I fed the sheep.
8 - And I destroyed the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also became displeased with me.
9 - And I said, I will not feed you again; who dies, dies; and whatsoever is destroyed, let it be destroyed; and those that remain shall each eat the flesh of the other.
10 - And I took my rod Grace, and brake it, to break my covenant, which I had established with all these peoples.
11 - And it was destroyed that day; and thus they knew the poor of the flock, who respected me, that this was the word of the LORD.
12 - For I said unto them, If it seem good in your eyes, give me my hire, and if not, let it alone. And they weighed my hire, thirty pieces of silver.
13 - And the LORD said unto me, Throw it to the potter, that fair price at which I was appraised by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them into the potter in the house of the LORD.
14 - And I have broken my second rod, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 - And the LORD said unto me, Take the instrument of a foolish shepherd unto thee.
16 - For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not hearken to the perishing: he shall not seek after the little one, neither shall he heal the wound, neither shall he shepherd the sound; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and break his nails.
17 - Woe to the unprofitable shepherd, who forsaketh the flock! The sword shall fall upon his arm, and upon his right eye; and his arm shall be utterly withered, and his right eye utterly darkened.
