2. Weep and wail, cypress trees —the cedars have fallen;those glorious trees have been destroyed!Weep and wail, oaks of Bashan —the dense forest has been cut down!
3. The rulers cry out in grief;their glory is gone!Listen to the roaring of the lions;their forest home along the Jordan is destroyed!
4. The Lord my God said to me, “Act the part of the shepherd of a flock of sheep that are going to be butchered.
5. Their owners kill them and go unpunished. They sell the meat and say, ‘Praise the Lord! We are rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no pity on them.”
6. (The Lord said, “I will no longer pity anyone on earth. I myself will put all the people in the power of their rulers. Those rulers will devastate the earth, and I will not save it from their power.”)
7. Those who bought and sold the sheep hired me, and I became the shepherd of the sheep that were going to be butchered. I took two sticks: one I called “Favour”, and the other “Unity”. And I took care of the flock.
8. I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month.
9. Then I said to the flock, “I will not be your shepherd any longer. Let those who are to die, die. Let those who are to be destroyed, be destroyed. Those who are left will destroy one another.”
10. Then I took the stick called “Favour” and broke it, to cancel the covenant which the Lord had made with all the nations.
11. So the covenant was cancelled on that day. Those who bought and sold the sheep were watching me, and they knew that the Lord was speaking through what I did.
12. I said to them, “If you are willing, give me my wages. But if not, keep them.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver as my wages.
13. The Lord said to me, “Put them in the temple treasury.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver — the magnificent sum they thought I was worth — and put them in the temple treasury.