Jeremiah 12:8

12:8 The people I call my own ¹  have turned on me

like a lion ²  in the forest.

They have roared defiantly ³  at me.

So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁴ 

Zechariah 11:8-9

11:8 Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, ⁵  for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well. 11:9 I then said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be eradicated, let it be eradicated. As for those who survive, let them eat each other’s flesh!”

¹ tn See the note on the previous verse.

² tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”

³ tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”

⁴ tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.

⁵ sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1–25:7).