a shoot · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Bands
חָבַלchâbal
H2254
to wind tightly (as a rope)
break
לְהָפֵר֙le.ha.Fer
H6565
to break up (usually figuratively) · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
brotherhood
הָֽאַחֲוָ֔הha.'a.cha.Vah
H264
fraternity · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Judah
יְהוּדָ֖הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 9:21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand…
James 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Isaiah 11:13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex…
Ezekiel 37:16-20 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take anoth…
Zechariah 11:7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other…
Zechariah 11:9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every…
Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Acts 23:7-10 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 11:4-14
The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for judgment Christ came into this world (Joh 9:39), for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were, about the time of his coming, wretchedly corrupted and degenerated by the worldliness and hypocrisy of their rulers. Christ would have healed them, but they would not be healed; they are therefore left desolate, and abandoned to ruin. Observe here,
I. The desperate case of the Jewish church, under the tyranny of their own governors. Their slavery in their own country made them as miserable as their captivity in strange countries had done: Their possessors sla…
The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the fratricidal discord of factions which raged within Jerusalem on the eve of its fall, while the Romans were thundering at its gates without. See JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews]. Also the continued severance of the tribes till their coming reunion (Rom 11:15).
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 11:14
That I might break the brotherhood - I cannot, says Newcome, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel subsisted when the prophet wrote it; and that either the wars between Judah and Israel are referred to, (see Kg2 16:5), or the captivity of the ten tribes, when the brotherly connection between these kingdoms ceased.
John Gill on Zechariah 11:14
Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands,.... By which is meant, either the removal of the form of civil government from the Jews; or the abrogation of the Mosaic law, and the carnal ordinances of the Jews, in which judaizing Christians joined them, until the destruction of Jerusalem; or rather the ordinances of the Gospel, which, upon taking that away, ceased:
that l might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel; the Gospel and Gospel ordinances being removed from the Jews, there was no more work of conversion among them; their church state came to nothing, and an entire disagreement between them and the Gentiles ensued: and so it is when God takes away his word and ordinance…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 14) And I cut off my second staff, called 'Favor,' in order to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Septuagint: And I threw away my second staff, called 'Favor,' in order to annul the covenant that existed between Judah and Israel. And in this place, I came across a long explanation, or rather, intricate puzzles, that I read in the volume of Ezekiel, bringing together the two staffs into one community, and all the things that should be spiritually understood about the harmony between Judah and Ephraim, fitting in with this chapter. But let us follow the order of events. After the Lord was crucified by the Jews, being valued at thirty pieces of silver, and the price of his blood was thrown into the burial place of the Gentiles, who were strangers to the Law and the commandments of God, immediately the Lord, not delaying his judgment any longer, said, 'Cut off my second staff, which was properly mine, and which clung to me in such a way that in Jeremiah it is called a loincloth and a belt and a girdle, or, using the customary word, a hip-band: this second staff, once called a rope and my portion, has been cast away by me, in order that I might dissolve the covenant and brotherhood and harmony that existed between Judah and Israel, and separate brothers from one another.' That in numbering the apostles and those who repented, Judas was called again and confessed his God; but Israel and Ephraim and Joseph were called, who, remaining in the hardness of their hearts, said: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). Therefore, he did not introduce it to make void the covenant or testament, which I had with Judah and Israel (for even to this day he extends his hand to those who repent), but to divide believers and non-believers from one people among themselves, saying: Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:34-35).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 11:14
14. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
14. Et fregi virgam meam alteram, nempe collectionis, ad dissipandam fraternitatem in ter Iehudah et inter Israel.
There is here set before us the extreme vengeance of God in scattering his people, so that there would be no longer any union between the children of Abraham. We have seen that the Prophet took two staves or crooks to execute the office of a shepherd in ruling the people. The first staff he said was Beauty, because God had omitted nothing necessary to produce the best order of things. Now when this blessed mode of ruling was trodden under foot, th…
In consequence of this shameful payment for his service, the shepherd of the Lord breaks his second staff, as a sign that he will no longer feed the ungrateful nation, and but leave it to its fate. The breaking of this staff is interpreted, in accordance with its name, as breaking or destroying the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. With these words, which are chosen with reference to the former division of the nation into two hostile kingdoms, the dissolution of the fraternal unity of the nation is depicted, and the breaking up of the nation into parties opposing and destroying one another is represented as the result of a divine decree. Hofmann, Ebrard (Offenbarung Johannis), and Kliefo…
to the potter: Some scholars speculate that a guild of potters might have been minor Temple officials due to the continual need for sacred vessels (see Lev 6:28). Others, noting the similarity between potter (Hebrew yotser) and treasury (’otsar), follow the Syriac version, which reads into the treasury (see Matt 27:6, 10; cp. Jer 32:6-9). The Greek Old Testament translates this sentence as “throw it into the furnace,” suggesting that the silver was melted down and recast into a silver vessel for use in Temple rituals. • Thirty coins (or pieces of silver) was a magnificent sum of money (nearly two years’ wages for the average laborer).
Rashi on Zechariah 11:14
And I cut off My second staff I exiled Zedekiah.
the destroyers The wicked of his generation, for he was righteous, but his generation was wicked.
to nullify the brotherhood that the Judahites and the Benjamites were joined in brorherhood, and that they adhered to the abominations of the kings of Israel.
