For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
to commiserate · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
inhabitants
יֹשְׁבֵ֥יyo.she.Vei
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
land
הָאָ֖רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
deliver
מַמְצִ֣יאmam.Tzi'
H4672
properly · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
men
הָאָדָ֗םha.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
one
אִ֤ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
neighbour’s
רֵעֵ֙הוּ֙re.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hand
בְּיַדbe.yad-
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
hand
וּבְיַ֣דu.ve.Yad
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · conjunction + preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
king
מַלְכּ֔וֹmal.Ko
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
smite
וְכִתְּתוּ֙ve.khi.te.Tu
H3807
to bruise or violently strike · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
land
הָאָ֔רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
hand
מִיָּדָֽםmi.ya.Dam
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
deliver
אַצִּ֖יל'a.Tzil
H5337
to snatch away · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common 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 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy…
Isaiah 9:19-21 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother…
Micah 5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion a…
Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Psalms 50:22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Isaiah 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the…
Isaiah 27:11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding…
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…
Jehovah, in vengeance for their rejection of Messiah, gave them over to intestine feuds and Roman rule. The Zealots and other factious Jews expelled and slew one another by turns at the last invasion by Rome.
his king--Vespasian or Titus: they themselves (Joh 19:15) had said, unconsciously realizing Zechariah's words, identifying Rome's king with Judah's ("his") king, "We have no king but CÃ&brvbrsar." God took them at their word, and gave them the Roman king, who "smote (literally, 'dashed in pieces') their land," breaking up their polity, when they rejected their true King who would have saved them.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 11:6
For I will no more pity - I have determined to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldeans.
John Gill on Zechariah 11:6
For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord,.... Or spare them; but cause his wrath to come upon them to the uttermost, as it did at the time of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans;
but, lo, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbour's hand; this seems to refer to the factions and divisions among themselves during the siege of Jerusalem, when multitudes fell into the hands of the zealots, and heads of parties, and perished by them:
and into the hand of his king; Vespasian the Roman emperor; the Jews having declared, long before this time, that they had no king but Caesar, John 19:15 and now into his hands they were delivered up:
and they shall smite the l…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 6, 7) And I will no longer spare those who dwell on the earth, says the Lord. Behold, I will deliver each man into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king, and they shall strike the earth, and I will not deliver it from their hand. And I will feed the sheep of slaughter, O you poor of the flock. LXX: Therefore, I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. And behold, I will deliver each man into the hands of his neighbor and into the hand of his king, and they shall strike the earth, and I will not deliver it from their hand, and I will feed the sheep of slaughter in Canaan. What the Seventy translated in the last chapter: 'And I will feed the sheep of slaughter in the land of Canaan', is not in Hebrew, and is not translated by any other interpreter. Therefore, since their shepherds did not spare them, but themselves devoured my first people, for this reason, I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land of Judea, says the Lord. For he speaks of this land, of which the discourse was to him, and not of the world, as the Jews, interpreting poorly, want to distort the meaning of God into another part. For after the destruction of the temple (which happened to them because for forty-two years, from the time the Lord suffered, having received opportunity, they refused to repent), he says, 'I will send one against the other, and they will cut each other to pieces with mutual slaughter, whether in the very siege of the temple, when the Roman army will surround Jerusalem, for there will be such wars and dissensions among the Jews that the people will be divided into three parts.' We read the seven books of the Jewish captivity, and we see that this prophecy has been fulfilled, confirmed by historical truth. 'And they will fall,' he says, 'the land, undoubtedly the Romans will destroy all the land and cities of the Jews. And I will not rescue them from their hand.' Listen, O Jews, who hold vain hopes for yourselves, and do not listen to the Lord who says and affirms: 'I will not rescue them from their hands,' that your future captivity among the Romans will be eternal. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, so that the Jews may always be nourished unto death; because this is God's decree: O you who are poor of the flock, that is, the righteous of Israel, who have believed in the Lord Jesus and have received the Son…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 11:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 11:4-6
4. Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
4. Sic dicit Iehova, Deus meus, Pasce gregem occisionis.
5. Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
5. Qui possident ipsum, occident (hoc est, occidunt) et non peccant; et qui vendit ipsum (gregem, vel, ipsas oves) dicit, Benedictus Iehova, et ditatus sum; et qui pascit eas, non parcit illis.
6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the…
This section contains a symbolical act. By the command of Jehovah the prophet assumes the office of a shepherd over the flock, and feeds it, until he is compelled by its ingratitude to break his shepherd's staff, and give up the flock to destruction. This symbolical act is not a poetical fiction, but is to be regarded in strict accordance with the words, as an internal occurrence of a visionary character and of prophetical importance, through which the faithful care of the Lord for His people is symbolized and exhibited. Zac 11:4. "Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the slaughtering-flock; Zac 11:5. whose purchasers slay them, and bear no blame, and their sellers say, Blessed be Jehovah! I am ge…
The sheep (the Hebrew people) were being sold as slaves to buyers—occupying foreign powers, foreign allies, or domestic slave-traders (see Amos 2:6). • The sellers were the shepherds, leaders of the people who were more concerned with getting rich than with the well-being of the sheep.
Rashi on Zechariah 11:5
and not be guilty The kings of the nations among whom I will exile them; this one sells them, and the buyer slays them, without feeling (lit., “and he does not put to his heart”) that there should be guilt in the matter. The seller boasts: Blessed be the Lord Who delivered them into my hand, and behold! I am wealthy.
for I have become wealthy And behold! I am wealthy.
