11:15 Again the Lord said to me, “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 18 11:16 Indeed, I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not take heed to the sheep headed to slaughter, will not seek the scattered, and will not heal the injured. 19 Moreover, he will not nourish the one that is healthy but instead will eat the meat of the fat sheep 20 and tear off their hooves.
11:17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons the flock!
May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye!
May his arm wither completely away,
and his right eye become completely blind!”
11:2 Howl, fir tree,
because the cedar has fallen;
the majestic trees have been destroyed.
Howl, oaks of Bashan,
because the impenetrable forest has fallen.
1 tn Heb “did.”
2 tn Heb “walked before.”
3 tn Heb “in faithfulness and in innocence and in uprightness of heart with you.”
4 tn Heb “and you have kept to him this great loyalty and you gave to him a son [who] sits on his throne as this day.”
5 tn Heb “and I do not know going out or coming in.”
9 tn There is no verb expressed in the Hebrew text; “stands” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
10 tn Heb “your people whom you have chosen.”
13 tn Heb “a hearing heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)
14 tn Heb “to judge.”
15 tn Heb “to understand between good and evil.”
16 tn Heb “for”; the word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.
17 tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”
18 tn Heb “to judge.”
19 tn Heb “your numerous people.”
17 tn Heb “feared,” perhaps in the sense, “stood in awe of.”
18 tn Heb “saw.”
19 tn Heb “the wisdom of God within him.”
21 sn The grammar (e.g., the incipient participle מֵקִים, maqim, “about to raise up,” v. 16) and overall sense of vv. 15-17 give the incident a future orientation. Zechariah once more is role-playing but this time he is a “foolish” shepherd, i.e., one who does not know God and who is opposed to him (cf. Prov 1:7; 15:5; 20:3; 27:22). The individual who best represents this eschatological enemy of God and his people is the Antichrist (cf. Matt 24:5, 24; 2 Thess 2:3-4; 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7).
25 tn Heb “the broken” (so KJV, NASB; NRSV “the maimed”).
26 tn Heb “the fat [ones].” Cf. ASV “the fat sheep”; NIV “the choice sheep.”
29 tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”
30 tn Or “lust.”
33 tc The words ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας (epi tou" Juiou" th" apeiqeia", “on the sons of disobedience”) are lacking in Ì46 B b sa, but are found in א A C D F G H I Ψ 075 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy bo. The words are omitted by several English translations (NASB, NIV, ESV, TNIV). This textual problem is quite difficult to resolve. On the one hand, the parallel account in Eph 5:6 has these words, thus providing scribes a motive for adding them here. On the other hand, the reading without the words may be too hard: The ἐν οἷς (en |oi") of v. 7 seems to have no antecedent without υἱούς already in the text, although it could possibly be construed as neuter referring to the vice list in v. 5. Further, although the witness of B is especially important, there are other places in which B and Ì46 share errant readings of omission. Nevertheless, the strength of the internal evidence against the longer reading is at least sufficient to cause doubt here. The decision to retain the words in the text is less than certain.
37 tn See BDAG 100 s.v. ἀπεκδύομαι 2.
38 tn The antecedent of the Greek pronoun αὐτῷ (autw) could either be “Christ” or the “cross.” There are several reasons for choosing “the cross” as the antecedent for αὐτῷ in verse 15: (1) The nearest antecedent is τῷ σταυρῷ (tw staurw) in v. 14; (2) the idea of ἐδειγμάτισεν ἐν παρρησία (edeigmatisen en parrhsia, “made a public disgrace”) seems to be more in keeping with the idea of the cross; (3) a reference to Christ seems to miss the irony involved in the idea of triumph – the whole point is that where one would expect defeat, there came the victory; (4) if Christ is the subject of the participles in v. 15 then almost certainly the cross is the referent for αὐτῷ. Thus the best solution is to see αὐτῷ as a reference to the cross and the preposition ἐν (en) indicating “means” (i.e., by means of the cross) or possibly (though less likely) location (on the cross).