The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Forest” it comes from the Hebrew Word “yaar” which means “forest.”
Zechariah acts out the rejection of a good shepherd, foreshadowing the betrayal price of thirty pieces of silver. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Zechariah 11.
Zechariah urges Lebanon to open her doors, that the fire may devour her cedars, urging the fir tree to howl, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled, urging the oaks of Bashan to howl, for the “forest,” “yaar” in Hebrew, of the vintage has come down, describing a voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their glory is spoiled, a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
Zechariah is commanded to feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty, so he feeds the flock of slaughter, even the poor of the flock, and takes two staves, the one he calls Beauty, and the other he calls Bands, and feeds the flock, cutting off three shepherds in one month, his soul loathing them, and their soul also abhorring him, saying he will not feed them, that which dies, let it die, and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off, and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
Zechariah takes his staff Beauty, and cuts it asunder, that he might break his covenant which he had made with all the people, and it being broken in that day, saying to them, if they think good, to give him his price, and if not, to forbear, so they weigh for his price thirty pieces of silver, the Lord telling him to cast it to the potter, a goodly price that he was prized at of them, so he takes the thirty pieces of silver, and casts them to the potter in the house of the Lord, then cutting asunder his other staff Bands, that he might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel, this remarkable acted prophecy foreshadowing Judas’s betrayal of Jesus for the very same sum, later cast down in the temple and used to buy a potter’s field.
Zechariah’s strange, acted prophecy, valuing a rejected shepherd at exactly thirty pieces of silver, then casting it to the potter in the temple, found astonishingly precise fulfillment centuries later in Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, recorded explicitly by Matthew. This chapter’s breaking of the staves named Beauty and Bands pictures the tragic breaking of both God’s gracious covenant relationship and the unity between Judah and Israel when a genuine shepherd is rejected.
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