Zechariah 11: Israel’s Sin and Punishment

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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Zechariah 11 paints a dismal picture in general, following the blessings of Zechariah 10. It’s almost as though to remind the Israelites that while God does have good things planned for the nation, they will go through very rough times prior to reaching that point.

In fact, Moses takes the time in Deuteronomy 28-30, to highlight the positives and negatives of obedience and disobedience to the Israelites. Deuteronomy itself is an extremely practical book and it’s understandable why Jesus quoted from it so often. It’s where the rubber meets the road for the Israelites.

Moses emphasized to the Israelites how important it was to obey God from the heart. Too often, the Israelites would simply go through the motions and even “cheat” God by offering sacrificial animals that were not “perfect” and had issues. If they knew an animal was dying, they’d hurry up and send it over to the priests to be sacrificed rather than give God the best of their herds. It was all for show.

Clearly, the Israelites (not all), saw the sacrificial system as a “have to” and did what they had to do in order to check things off. As I look back over my life, I can see that I’ve done the same type of thing where God is concerned and my attitude toward Him reflected that. At times, I did not give Him my best and those “markers” remain in my life to help me remember what I should be doing instead.

God is exceedingly gracious and forgiving. He has, however, every right to drop the hammer when we mess up continually as a way of life. This is no different from a loving parent taking that same approach with a wayward child. But it is done not out of hatred, but out of love, though we have a difficult time seeing that.

This is also what the prophet Zechariah experienced in his ministry to Israel. It’s disheartening to say the least. Zechariah did and said to Israel what God wanted done and said. It must have been hard for the prophet to have to say some of the things he said and in some cases, he was essentially told to act things out as though he was the Messiah. This resulted in anger and distancing by most of the people of Israel, though clearly, some got it and understood because God always keeps for Himself a remnant of believing people.

Zechariah 11 deals with the problems that Israel would face. The prophet was speaking a hundreds of years before Roman armies surrounded and sacked Jerusalem, but his words came to fulfillment. While many conservative commentators believe there was partial fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecies in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70), the full and final aspect of this fulfillment will not occur until the coming Tribulation period of seven years, leading up to the physical return of Jesus to this planet.

We can sum up Zechariah 11 this way (though there are numerous ways to sum it up):

Zechariah the prophet portrays the Good Shepherd or Messiah in parabolic form. As the chapter unfolds, we see how he is mistreated by the sheep (Israel), to the point that he asks for his pay (30 pieces of silver).

The silver is thrown down and ultimately given to the potter. This amount was the cost of a slave in ancient times. This, of course, is reminiscent of how Judas betrayed Jesus for the exact same amount of silver, which also went to buy a potter’s field for the burial of the poor, by the self-righteous priests.

The sheep (Israel), rejects the Good Shepherd, embracing the bad shepherd. This has occurred repeatedly throughout Israel’s history as that nation has continually had bad shepherds whom the nation essentially embraced. Israel rejected Jesus, the Innocent and embraced Barabbas, the criminal.

Each time Israel rejected God (through the prophets or Jesus Himself in the flesh), God sent judgment on that nation eventually. The last judgment occurred in AD 70 with Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem and destroying it and its people. Those who could, fled and the dispersion occurred with Jewish people going to all places throughout the world. This happened roughly 40 years after Jesus was rejected by Israel’s leaders. Interestingly enough, there were Jewish people who believed and embraced Jesus, but not the entire nation nor its leaders. Because of that, the nation was judged using the Romans to accomplish it.

Ultimately, Israel will embrace yet another false shepherd, the final one, the man of sin Paul references in 2 Thessalonians 2. Doing so will end God’s patience and usher in His wrath and judgment.

This will be the final judgment of Israel prior to the physical return of Jesus. As promised in Romans 9-11, though God has and will pour out judgment on the wayward nation of Israel when they continually reject Him, God never rejects the nation permanently or completely. This is due to His unconditional covenant with Israel.

Following the final judgment of the coming Tribulation after Israel enters into a false covenant of peace with Antichrist, God will bring about a final judgment and cleansing of the nation to cull a final remnant of Israelites who believe in Jesus as Messiah. This group will survive the Tribulation and enter into the Millennial Kingdom where they – as the final Israel – will enjoy the full blessings of the Abrahamic promises regarding Israel.

While Zechariah 10 highlights blessing and prosperity for Israel, Zechariah 11 focuses on sin and punishment for Israel. This is due to the apostasy and rejection of God by the nation so many times in history and also due to ultimately rejecting Messiah by Israel’s religious leaders.

There are three types of shepherds in Zechariah 11

1. the wailing shepherds (Zechariah 11:1-3)
2. the true Shepherd (Zechariah 11:4-14), and
3. the false shepherd (Zechariah 11:15-17)

Zechariah 11:1-3 focus on the calamity that is slated to hit Israel (including Lebanon). Lebanon’s famous cedars would be destroyed. Lebanon is often taken to mean Jerusalem in Scripture. Cedar trees were very important to Israel’s culture and the cedar became a symbol of the royal house of Judah (Ezekiel 17:3-4; 12-13).

Verses 1-3 essentially promote an announcement of doom for Israel. The oaks and trees of Bashan would also be destroyed. This is a poetic way of saying the entire land would be destroyed due to God’s poured out wrath.

Verse 2: All these trees suggest total judgment. A judgment that would affect the whole land of Palestine and all its people, including its rulers, is in view. (Constable).

Verse 3: the “shepherds and the lions” would wail due to the lack of food and pasture. This refers to the “leaders and rulers of Israel.” Several things could be in view here:

• a description of the devastation of Palestine due to the rejection of the Messiah, or
• a lament over the destruction of the nations’ power and arrogance described in chapter 10

What is predicted here had initial fulfillment in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews in A.D. 70.
However, its complete fulfillment, is yet future, with the destruction that will occur during the coming Tribulation (aka “Jacob’s Trouble”).

Verse 4: this shows Zechariah acting the part of a shepherd for the people and speaking for God.

Zechariah 11:4-14: Deals with the Fate of the Good Shepherd. Israel would reject the Good Shepherd (Messiah), God provided to the nation and the world. A problem arose when people brought the sheep (ewes; female) and slaughtered them for food rather than allowing them to have offspring.

The slayers represent the foreign rulers who took over the Israelites, persecuted them, and had not paid the full penalty for their abusive treatment of them (Genesis 12:3). Those who sold the sheep were Israel’s former rulers and leaders who, by their sins, had set the people up for divine judgment by foreigners (Constable).

Verse 6: The Lord was completely frustrated with Israel and He allowed them to be subjugated and slaughtered by other nations. This was due to Israel’s rejection of Him and ultimately, Messiah. God removed His protective hand from Israel after their rejection of Messiah during the Roman attack on Jerusalem in AD 70.

Verse 7: here Zechariah continues to speak as though a shepherd and announces the sheep are doomed to slaughter because of their rejection of God. Also in this verse, Zechariah has two staffs as a shepherd:

• Beauty (favor or blessing)
• Bonds (unity of the flock)

These two staffs were a crooked staff to gather sheep and a rod used to beat predators.

Verse 8: Zechariah dismisses the three shepherds he had hired to watch the sheep that month. This is reminiscent of what will occur when Jesus physically returns to take over His flock and judge the nations. These three shepherds likely refer to three classes of leaders in Israel: Israel’s elders, chief priests, and scribes who all rejected Jesus during His first appearance.

Verse 9: here Zechariah turns the sheep over to their fate (for continual rejection of God):

• Some “sheep” of Israel would die,
• Some would be driven from the land, and
• Others would devour one another

All of this literally occurred during the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem, with some Jews resorting to cannibalism to save their lives. This will also repeat itself during the coming Tribulation when these same things will happen to Jews living then, tragically.

Verse 10: Zechariah cuts his staff “Beauty” and cut it in half, signifying the end of his pastoral care of the “sheep” (Israel). This foretells the result of Israel rejecting and executing Jesus and the judgment that occurred afterwards. Ultimately, this refers to the care and security God had been providing to Israel even though they were repeat offenders by rejecting Him culminating in the rejection of Jesus.

Verse 11: the “poor of the flock” refers to the REMNANT or true believers in Israel. They knew that what Zechariah did was in harmony with God’s Word. This points back to Jewish believers of Jesus during His first coming from our day, but points forward to that time from Zechariah’s day.

Verse 12: Here, Zechariah, continuing as the shepherd (Messiah), asks for his pay for watching and protecting the flock (Israel). So the leaders weighed out 30 pieces of silver – the price of a slave in the ancient world and often times, a physically imperfect slave at that. To offer Zechariah this wage was actually worse than not paying him at all. Of course, this points to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Verse 13: In both cases – Zechariah and with Jesus – the money was given/thrown to the potter. God was being sarcastic here with the use of a “princely price” they set on Zechariah (and Jesus).

We will complete Zechariah 11:13-17 and also get into Zechariah 12 next time!

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2025/03/04/zechariah-11-israels-sin-and-punishment/