Text

[1] Open your doors, O Lebanon,

Open, O Lebanon, your doors,

So that fire may devour your cedars!

And let fire devour your cedars!

[2] Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

Cry out, pine, because the cedar has fallen,

For the glorious trees are ruined!

Because the nobles are severely distressed!

Wail, oaks of Bashan,

Cry out, oaks of Basanitis,

For the thick forest has been felled!

Because the dense thicket was pulled down.

[3] Listen, the wail of the shepherds,

A cry of wailing shepherds,

For their glory is despoiled,

Because their majesty has had to do hard work!

Listen, the roar of the lions, 

A cry of roaring lions,

For the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!

Because the arrogance of the Jordan has had to do hard work!

Notes on Text

It is somewhat ambiguous whether this passage was originally part of the preceding chapters and was assigned to chapter 11 as part of a later editorial process, was originally the poetic preface to the rest of Zechariah 11 (which is prose), or was perhaps a later insertion intended to provide a smoother transition between Zechariah 10 and 11.  In any case, this passage is notably distinct from the rest of Zechariah 11 and the subsequent chapters, which are mostly prose compositions. It is also a lovely piece of poetry that continues the bad shepherd metaphor to which we were introduced in the previous chapter. 

Here, we see an extended metaphor wherein various trees (cedars, oaks, cypress, pines) are metaphors for aristocrats, and this language is similar to language promising that God will lay low the mighty in other prophetic books.  The metaphor then shifts first to shepherds and second to lions, which is an interesting progression inasmuch as it is ostensibly the case that shepherds would be protecting their flock from lions, whereas here we see them identified with each other.  There is some extent to which this transition seems thematically appropriate given the context of deforestation metaphors, and it is also obviously the case that lions are a fairly standard symbol for aristocrats, pride, etc.  Nevertheless, it is important to note that in this passage the implication is that the shepherds are in fact predatory.  As we shall see, the predatory nature of the shepherds is reemphasized in several places in the remainder of Zechariah.  

As one final note, mostly pertaining to translation: the Greek verb that I have translated as “has had to do hard work,”  ταλαιπωρέω talaipōreō, can literally mean to do hard work, but can also mean to endure hardship or distress.  Interestingly enough, there are quite a few words in Greek for hardship and suffering that also mean to work hard, toil, or labor.  It is perhaps helpful to remember in this regard that a fairly common thing during this time period was for military conquest to lead, for example, to slavery for the conquered people, so there is a very tangible sense in which misfortune led directly to hard work.  But it is also the case that for much of human history, a characteristic of the aristocracy was that they had other people to do work for them, and so the wealthy or fortunate did not labor and the poor or misfortune did labor (and were also subject to whatever afflictions that the non-laboring classes inflicted upon them).  

This is perhaps editorializing on my part, but I do think that there is something meaningful to the idea that the majesty of shepherds and arrogance of lions has been ruined by having to daggone roll up their sleeves and labor like the average person.  It is also the case that within the prophetic books of the Bible, especially Isaiah, there is a long-running condemnation of the exploitation that the wealthy inflict upon the poor.  This theme is emphasized quite heavily in the New Testament, and I think particularly in light of the popularity of things like the prosperity gospel, it is worth taking every chance possible to emphasize the open hostility that Scripture frequently directs towards the wealthy and powerful.