Глава 11

1–3. God's judgment revealed in the devastation of the country. 4–14. A symbolic depiction of the activity of the good Shepherd and the ingratitude of the sheep. 15–17. The negligence and selfishness of the worthless shepherd and the severe punishment predicted for him. Zechariah 11:1. Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let the fire consume your cedars. Zechariah 11:2. Howl, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for even the great ones are desolate; howl, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has fallen. Zechariah 11:3. The voice of the shepherds is heard crying, because their freedom is devastated; the roaring of young lions is heard, because the beauty of the Jordan is laid waste. God's judgment over the chosen people is depicted under the guise of the devastation of the earth, the destruction of its most important works. The devastation of the earth is a sign of the final destruction of the kingdom. This judgment on Israel was carried out by the Romans. This is the understanding of St. Cyril: the prophet “foreshadows the future unbelief in Him (in Christ) of the sons of Israel... and that for this reason the church itself and, of course, Jerusalem should be burned... This happened by the hand of the Romans, once led by Vespasian and Titus" (p. 148, Keil 616, Rouge 226; Urguhart, Die erfüllten Weissagungen... 1903. Ss. 169–170). Zechariah 11:4. Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the sheep that are destined for the slaughter, Zechariah 11:5. whom those who bought kill with impunity, and those who sold say: “Blessed is the Lord; I got rich!” and their shepherds do not regret them. The chosen people, punished by God for their sins and their rebellion, are likened to a flock of sheep doomed to the slaughter. Nobody feels any pity for them; Everyone only thinks about this in order to extract as much benefit as possible from them. Those who buy kill sheep whenever they want, without fear of any responsibility for it; sellers rejoice at the profit they receive, and shepherds are completely indifferent to the fate of their sheep (Jer. 132; Cyr. 153–155). Zechariah 11:6. For I will no longer have mercy on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord; and behold, I will deliver the people, every one into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king, and they shall smite the land, and I will not deliver out of their hands. However, the Lord does not completely leave sinful and criminal people without His care. For the sake of preserving it from final destruction, He pours out wrath on those inhabitants of the earth who are so cruel to Israel, which is suffering the calamities of enslavement. According to St. Kirill, here the Lord “threatens death along with the flock... since although they had the opportunity to resort to the leadership of the archpastor of all, I mean Christ, and to be under His authority, they ignorantly chose to surrender to those who slaughtered and sold them” (pp. 155–156). Zechariah 11:7. And I will feed the sheep doomed to the slaughter, truly poor sheep. And I will take for myself two rods, and I will call one favor, the other bond, and with them I will feed the sheep. Further, the prophet symbolically depicts the activity of the good Shepherd, who henceforth takes upon himself the work of protecting the flock; in the course of speech, this Shepherd is God Himself (or the person of the Divine, i.e. the Messiah, - Keil. 617). He shepherds the unfortunate sheep doomed to the slaughter with the help of two staffs: one He calls favor (Viennese: grace), the other - bonds. According to Laur, the symbolic names of the rods given by the Good Shepherd were supposed to represent, as it were, the motto of His pastoral ministry (P. Elred Laur. Die Prophetennamen des Alten Testamentes. Freiburg 1, 1903. S. 115). The ancients and Luther instead of chobhelim - “bonds” in v. 7 read chabhalim - “sickness, sorrow” (Luth. 222, Marti 441). Zechariah 11:8. And I will destroy three of the shepherds in one month; and My soul will turn away from them, just as their soul also turns away from Me. Zechariah 11:9. Then I will say: I will not shepherd you: let the one who dies, let her die, and the one who perishes, let her perish, and let those who remain eat the flesh of one another. The activity of the Good Shepherd over a period of time, symbolically designated by one month, is manifested mainly in the fact that He destroys three shepherds - obviously those who oppressed the sheep, treated them unfairly and cruelly. According to a very widespread interpretation since the time of the fathers, the three shepherds should be understood as Jewish kings (or generally representatives of secular power), priests and prophets. So at St. Ephraim (p. 249) and Blessed. Theodoret (p. 110) Jerome gives this interpretation, but he himself adheres to another, understanding the three shepherds as Moses, Aaron and Miriam: “of these Mariam died in the first month, called Nisan, in the desert of Sin; in the same place and in the same month, as a result of the water of strife, Moses and Aaron were condemned not to enter the land of promise (Num. 20:10-13). And it so happened that of those three leaders, one was struck by actual death, the other two were condemned to death by the verdict of the divine court” (136). At St. Cyril here refers to “priests, judges and those versed in the scriptures of the law” - “scribes”, or “legalists” (pp. 159–160). In later times, interpreters are more inclined to understand in this place three harsh monarchies, which alternately had Jews under their subordination (Keil 620, Haupt 280; Zatw 1881. S. 27, Anm. 2, S. 71 and Anm; Marti 439). – But the sheep do not remain unpunished; after the abolition of the three cruel shepherds, they do not show due trust and obedience towards their Shepherd, and He finds Himself forced to stop His activity in protecting the flock, leaving it to the mercy of fate, to perish from external disasters and from internal strife. Zechariah 11:10. And I will take My rod of favor and break it, to destroy the covenant that I have made with all nations. As a sign of this, He breaks the rod called “favor” or “grace,” and the covenant He made with all nations is destroyed on the same day (Zech. 11:11). This covenant was beneficial for the flock protected by the Shepherd, because it largely paralyzed the evil that the pagan nations could inflict on the chosen people (Keil 622). Zechariah 11:11. And it will be destroyed on that day, and then the poor of the sheep who wait for Me will know that this is the word of the Lord. This action of the Good Shepherd was correctly understood only by a part of the sheep, humble and obedient, who then understood the truth of the divine mission of the Good Shepherd and surrendered to Him completely, which saved them from the death that befell the disobedient sheep. Zechariah 11:12. And I will say to them: if it pleases you, then give Me My wages; if not, don’t give it; and they will weigh out thirty pieces of silver as payment to Me. And to these the Shepherd applies the last means of admonishing them and clarifying their true relationship to Him. The Shepherd invites the sheep to express how much they value His work - whether they find it worthy of reward or not; and He receives as a reward for His care of the flock thirty pieces of silver - the price of a slave (Ex. 21:32), with which, obviously, they did not want to reward the Shepherd for His labors, but to inflict a grave insult on Him. Zechariah 11:13. And the Lord said to me: throw them into the church storehouse - the high price at which they valued Me! And I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. By the command of God, the prophet, symbolizing the action of the good Shepherd, is to throw this offensive reward into the church storehouse, and he throws thirty pieces of silver into the house of the Lord for the potter. – The reading of “el hajjozer” in Zechariah 11:13 is controversial. Many read instead hajjozer - potter, haozar - treasury (Ges. W. B. Segfried u. Slade, Hebräisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, 1893, Leipzig; Now. 372, Marti 440). The transition of aleph to iodine is common in the Bible. -Aram.; it is not incredible for a book of post-exilic origin (H. Strack, Grammatik des Biblisch-aramäischen. Leipzig, 1901. S. 13; Zatw 1881. S. 28, Anm. Syn. translates the first “el hajjozer” of this verse - “in the church depository”, the second - “for the potter”). In explaining the expression “to the potter,” “for the potter,” Rougemont reasons as follows: “The Field of Blood or Akeldam, on the south side of the valley ... Geginnom, represents the only place in Jerusalem and its environs where land for a potter can be found. Thus, there could only be one potter in this city... Geginnom was “the sewer pit of the entire city into which all sewage flowed,” according to the Talmud, which calls it the mouth of hell. Thus, the potter, in the eyes of the people, took upon himself a certain share of the desecration of the place in which he lived; and to throw an object to the potter meant to express contempt for him in the most decisive way” (p. 230). According to Haupt, the potter is mentioned because he constantly deals with clay, with dirt, so “throw to the potter” can mean nothing more than to throw into a dirty, unclean place (S. 262). Some German commentators compare zum Töpfer, used by the prophet Zechariah, with German expressions: zum Henker or zum Schinber (Reinke 144, Keil 624). A comparison of the expressions “to the house of the Lord” and “for the potter” and understanding the latter expression in the indicated sense leads Haupt to the conclusion that the first of these expressions represents a parallel with the passage of scripture where the church is called a house of trade and a den of robbers (S. 283). In LXX hajjozer is translated through χωνευτηριον, slav. crucible (see W. N. Lower, The Hebreu Student's Commentary on Zehhariah Hibrek) aud LXX London, 1882. (P. 103). Blazh. Theodoret, interpreting the text of LXX, considers the words εις το χωνευτηριον an explanation of εις τον οικον Κυριου, reasoning as follows: “The Lord commands the prophet, as if by some fire to test whether this reward for good deeds is worthy; the prophet said that he cast the pieces of silver into the church of God, which he rightly called the crucible, because in it those who come to repentance, as in some kind of crucible, are renewed, having cast off the poison of sin and having become worthy of God’s love for mankind” (p. 112). And blessed Jerome by jozer means that potter “who is the Creator and Sculptor of everything” (p. 140). The use of the verb jazar in the Bible and in application to the creative activity of God (an example of which is seen in Zech. 12:1; see Ges. 10, 13), to some extent, justifies such an understanding in this place. – The fathers and teachers of the Church agree to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 11:11–13:) in the assignment of precisely thirty pieces of silver to Judas for betrayal, as narrated by the Evangelist Matthew in Matthew 27:5, 9–10:), mentioning, however, the name of Jeremiah, and not Zechariah (Ephr 251, Cyrus 165, Theod III, Jerome 139–140). Zechariah 11:14. And I broke My other rod, the “bond,” to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. After that, there was no longer any possibility of remaining a shepherd of such rebellious and ungrateful sheep, and the Good Shepherd breaks His second rod, dissolving the brotherhood between the two halves of the chosen people, between Judah and Israel, leaving them to be sacrificed to internal strife and party struggle (Keil 625). Now the good Shepherd's care for the ungrateful sheep comes to an end. - St. Cyril interprets the meaning of rods with symbolic names in relation to the preaching of the Gospel and the Law of Moses: “not having known the good rod, that is, the preaching of the Gospel, and, moreover, having dishonored the second rod, whose name is already, that is, the Law of Moses, the Jews did not come to faith, did not recognize the Law and the Prophets of the Foretold” (p. 168). Zechariah 11:15. And the Lord said to me: take yourself a shell from one of the stupid shepherds. Zechariah 11:16. For behold, I will place in this land a shepherd who will not care for the lost, who will not seek the lost, who will not heal the sick, who will not feed the healthy, but will eat the flesh of the fat and tear off their hooves. But the flock cannot remain completely without a shepherd; Having rejected the good Shepherd, it again falls under the authority and leadership of the unreasonable and cruel shepherd. The prophet, according to God's command, must take the shell of one of the stupid shepherds. This projectile denotes, of course, unreasonable management and neglect of the flock on the part of the shepherd. “Kohler's crushing of the hoof indicates consumption of hoof fat” (Marti 442). – St. Cyril and Blessed. Jerome, by an unreasonable, selfish and cruel shepherd they mean the Antichrist (Cyrus 169, Jerome 142. Cf. Luth. S. 329). The newest interpreters understand the evil shepherd as the Roman Empire, to whose cruel power the Jews fell around the time of the coming of the Savior and from which, after rejecting Him, they suffered final defeat (Keil 631, Haupt 284). Zechariah 11:17. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! a sword on his hand and on his right eye! his hand will be completely withered, and his right eye will be completely dim. Retribution awaits the worthless shepherd, who does not care about the flock at all. The most necessary members - the hand and his right eye - are affected: the hand loses the ability to act, and the eye to see - for not serving the interests of the herd. You might be interested in: