Zechariah 11:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 11:3
There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
howling
יִֽלְלַ֣תyi.Lat
H3215
a howl · noun, common feminine singular construct
shepherds
הָרֹעִ֔יםha.ro.'Im
H7462
to tend a flock · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
glory
אַדַּרְתָּ֑ם'a.dar.Tam
H155
something ample (as a large vine · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
spoiled
שֻׁדְּדָ֖הshu.de.Dah
H7703
properly · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
voice
ק֚וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
roaring
שַׁאֲגַ֣תsha.'a.Gat
H7581
a rumbling or moan · noun, common feminine singular construct
lions
כְּפִירִ֔יםke.fi.Rim
H3715
a village (as covered in by walls) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
pride
גְּא֥וֹןge.'on
H1347
arrogance or majesty · noun, common masculine singular construct
Jordan
הַיַּרְדֵּֽןhai.yar.Den
H3383
Jarden · definite article + proper noun, a place name
spoiled
שֻׁדַּ֖דshu.Dad
H7703
properly · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Jeremiah 50:44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away f…
Jeremiah 25:34-36 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispe…
1 Samuel 4:21-22 And she named the child I-chabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in…
Psalms 22:21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
Isaiah 65:15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Jeremiah 2:15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
Jeremiah 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Jeremiah 7:4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 11:1-3
In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly and expressly. We have here, 1. Preparation made for that destruction (Zac 11:1): "Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let thy king in - he came to his own and his own received him not; now thou must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the forest, and all the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire come in and devour its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the temple, which was built of…
shepherds--the Jewish rulers.
their glory--their wealth and magnificence; or that of the temple, "their glory" (Mar 13:1; Luk 21:5).
young lions--the princes, so described on account of their cruel rapacity.
pride of Jordan--its thickly wooded banks, the lair of "lions" (Jer 12:5; Jer 49:19). Image for Judea "spoiled" of the magnificence of its rulers ("the young lions"). The valley of the Jordan forms a deeper gash than any on the earth. The land at Lake Merom is on a level with the Mediterranean Sea; at the Sea of Tiberias it falls six hundred fifty feet below that level, and to double that depression at the Dead Sea, that is, in all, 1950 feet below the Mediterranean; in twenty mile…
Young lions - Princes and rulers. By shepherds, kings or priests may be intended.
John Gill on Zechariah 11:3
There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds,.... Which may be understood either of the civil rulers among the Jews, who now lose their honour and their riches; and so the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret it of kings; or of the ecclesiastical rulers, the elders of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees:
for their glory is spoiled; their power and authority; their riches and wealth; their places of honour and profit; their offices, posts, and employments, whether in civil or religious matters, are taken from them, and they are deprived of them:
a voice of the roaring of young lions; of princes, comparable to them for their power, tyranny, and cruelty: the Targum is,
"their roari…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 3) The voice of the shepherds howls, because their magnificence has been laid waste. The voice of the lions' roar, because the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste. LXX: The voice of the mourners of the shepherds, because their magnificence has become miserable. The voice of the roaring lions, because the roaring of the Jordan has been subdued. This is the upper part of the chapter, and it is contained in these verses. Those he had called cedars, spruce trees, pines, and oaks of Bashan, and explaining what these trees represented, he said: Because the magnificent ones have been laid waste, now in another figure of speech he says that the shepherds, that is, the leaders and teachers, and those who were first among the people, ought to weep and mourn, because their magnificence and beauty and glory have been laid waste and destroyed: namely, the temple in which they boasted. And the voice, he says, is the roaring of lions, whom he now calls the same lions, the lofty trees, and again the shepherds. And because he had mentioned lions, he preserves the translation that he may infer: For the pride of the Jordan is laid waste, or the roaring and sound of the flowing water, which is called Gaon in Hebrew. And just as he compared the height of the temple to the elevation of the land of Judea near the height of Lebanon (for nothing is higher in the land of promise than Lebanon, nor more wooded and dense), so he joined the roar of lions to the Jordan river, which is the largest in Judea, near which the lions dwell, because of their burning thirst, and because of the proximity and wideness of the vast desert, and the reeds, and the marshes. And through the prophet it is said: The lion has come up from the Jordan (Jer. IV, 7), desiring to show that Nebuchadnezzar had left his abode, like a lion coming out of its den, against Jerusalem. Alternatively: The voice of the roaring lions, for the pride of the Jordan is laid waste. The voice, he says, of the nobles, because the temple has been destroyed, from which they always hoped for help, and which once nourished righteous ones and warriors and the powerful lions.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Lions — The most powerful of all carnivorous animals. Although not now found in Palestine, they must have been in ancient times very numerous there. They had their lairs in the forests (Jer. 5:6; 12:8; Amos…
Swelling — Of Jordan (Jer. 12:5), literally the “pride” of Jordan (as in R.V.), i.e., the luxuriant thickets of tamarisks, poplars, reeds, etc., which were the lair of lions and other beasts of prey. The…
Jordan, The River · The Jews had great pride in — The Jews had great pride in
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 11:1-3
1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
1. Aperi, Libane, protas tuas, et vorabit ignis cedros tuas:
2. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
2. Ulula abies, quia cecidit cedrus, quia fortes (vel, praestantes) vastati sunt; ululate quercus Bashan, quia descendit (hoc est, excisa est, vel, prostrate) sylva munita.
3. There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
3. Vox ululatus pastorum, quia vastata est praestantia eorum (vel, forti…
The Devastation of the Holy Land. - Zac 11:1. "Open thy gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour thy cedars! Zac 11:2. Howl, cypress; for the cedar is fallen, for the glory is laid waste! Howl, ye oaks of Bashan; for the inaccessible forest is laid low! Zac 11:3. A loud howling of the shepherds; for their glory is laid waste! A loud roaring of the young lions; for the splendour of Jordan is laid waste!" That these verses do not form the commencement of a new prophecy, having no connection with the previous one, but that they are simply a new turn given to that prophecy, is evident not only from the omission of any heading or of any indication whatever which could point to the commencement of a…
Shepherds and lions figuratively represent the leaders of Lebanon and Bashan, lamenting the destruction of their forested slopes, their pride, and their livelihood (see 11:1-2).
Rashi on Zechariah 11:3
the shepherds The kings.
for their glory אַדַּרְתָּם
the roar of the young lions The princes shall weep.
for the pride of the Jordan has been spoiled The pride of the Jordan, which is the place of the young lions and the old lions. Our Sages (Yoma 39b) explained “Open your doors, O Lebanon,” as the prophet prophesying about the destruction of the Second Temple; that forty years prior to the destruction, the doors of the Temple proper would open by themselves. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai rebuked them. He said, “Temple, how long will you terrify yourself? I know that you will eventually be destroyed. Zechariah the son of Iddo has already prophesied concerning you: ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon…
