Zechariah 11:17

11:15-17 God, having showed the misery of this people in their being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd, receives submission, and is supported at much expense; but he leaves the flock to perish through neglect, or leads them to ruin by his example. This suits many in different churches and nations, but the warning had an awful fulfilment in the Jewish teachers. And while such deceive others to their ruin, they will themselves have the deepest condemnation.

Woe to the idol shepherd,.... Or, "the shepherd of nothing" (w); that is, no true shepherd, that is good for nothing, for an idol is nothing in the world, 1 Corinthians 8:4 and who is an idol himself, sits in the temple of God, and is worshipped as if he was God. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and is an encourager and defender of idolatry: that leaveth the flock; has no regard to its spiritual concerns; does not feed it, but fleece it, and leaves it to the cruelty and avarice of his creatures under him: the sword shall be upon his arm; with which he should feed the flock: and upon his right eye; with which he should watch over it: his arm shall be clean dried up; his power shall be taken away from him; the antichristian states, which supported him, shall withdraw from him; the ten kings shall hate the whore, strip her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, Revelation 17:16, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened; not only given up to judicial blindness, which has been always his case; but his kingdom shall be full of darkness, Revelation 16:10 his hidden things of darkness shall be exposed; all his crafty schemes will be confounded; and all his wit, cunning, and subtlety, will cease; and everything desirable to him will be taken away from him.

His "arm" may denote his secular power, which shall be taken away from him: and his "right eye" his knowledge of the Scriptures, judgment in controversies, and infallibility pretended to by him, which wilt cease, even in the opinion of men. Ben Melech interprets it the eye of his heart or mind; and so Aben Ezra. (w) "pastori nihili", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, So R. So. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 4. 2.

Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his {t} arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be wholly dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened. (t) By the arm he signifies strength, as he does wisdom and judgments by the eye: that is, the plague of God will take away both your strength and judgment.

Zechariah 11:17 . Wo to the idol shepherd — Or the shepherd of nothing, or of no value, as רעי האליל should be translated; he who calls himself the shepherd, ruler, or teacher of the people, but is in reality nothing less. So רפאי אליל , Job 13:4 , signifies physicians of no value. That leaveth the flock — Who taketh no care of the flock, and minds nothing but making his own profit out of them. Such a shepherd is no better than an idol, that is profitable for nothing, ( Isaiah 44:10 ,) and hath only the outward form and appearance of a shepherd. The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye — As he has abused his power and his understanding, signified by his arm and his right eye, God shall in his just judgment, deprive him of the use of both those faculties. The sword is put for any instrument of the divine vengeance.

As the word חרב here rendered sword, also means desolation, Blayney renders the clause, Because of his arm is desolation, and because of his right eye: observing, “The purport of the passage is, that since, through the misapplication of his power, and through his negligence in watching over the flock, they are subjected to desolation or the sword; therefore, as of strict justice, he shall be punished with a deprivation at least of those faculties which he so fatally misused.” Some think the right arm and right eye of the people are intended, and observe, that the arm of the Jews was dried up from that time when they were no longer able to bear arms, or to defend themselves; as their right eye has been darkened to the true knowledge of the Scriptures, which they read as with a veil before them.

Woe to the idol shepherd! to every one of them that are but the images of shepherds, worthless and useless. That leaveth, casts off the care of, the flock , Jeremiah 23:1 Ezekiel 34:2 . The sword, of the enemy, shall be upon his arm, to break his strength, and upon his right eye; blind and befool his counsels. His arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened; power and policy shall fail him: such shall be their governors.

17 . idol shepherd ] Rather, worthless shepherd: lit. shepherd of nothingness , or worthlessness . Comp. “physicians of no value,” Job 13:4 . leaveth the flock ] Comp. John 10:12 . the sword ] To be taken perhaps metaphorically of punishment or visitation: “per gladium quamlibet speciem pœnæ designat.” Calv. The particular kind of punishment then follows, in the withering of the arm and blinding of the eye. The Second Burden. Chaps. 12–14. Like the First Burden of the Word of Jehovah, this Second extends over three chapters and contains two chief sections or prophecies. Of these the first reaches from Zechariah 12:1 to Zechariah 13:6 ; the second is comprised in the remainder of the Book. The First Section contains three subdivisions, viz. Jehovah’s protection of His people from their enemies, Zechariah 12:1-9 ; their penitent sorrow for sin, Zechariah 12:10-14 ; their worthy fruits of repentance, Zechariah 13:1-6 .

17. the idol—The Hebrew expresses both vanity and an idol. Compare Isa 14:13; Da 11:36; 2Th 2:4; Re 13:5, 6, as to the idolatrous and blasphemous claims of Antichrist. The "idol shepherd that leaveth the flock" cannot apply to Rome, but to some ruler among the Jews themselves, at first cajoling, then "leaving" them, nay, destroying them (Da 9:27; 11:30-38). God's sword shall descend on his "arm," the instrument of his tyranny towards the sheep (2Th 2:8); and on his "right eye," wherewith he ought to have watched the sheep (Joh 10:12, 13). However, Antichrist shall destroy, rather than "leave the flock." Perhaps, therefore, the reference is to the shepherds who left the flock to Antichrist's rapacity, and who, in just retribution, shall feel his "sword" on their "arm," which ought to have protected the flock but did not, and on their "eye," which had failed duly to watch the sheep from hurt. The blinding of "the right eye" has attached to it the notion of ignominy (1Sa 11:2).

Verse 17. - Woe to the idol shepherd! rather, woe to the worthless shepherd! literally, shepherd of vanity , or nothingness , as Job 13:4 , "physicians of no value." The LXX., recognizing that no special shepherd is signified, renders, Ω οἱ ποιμαίνοντες τὰ μάταια , "Alas for those who tend vanities!" St. Jerome, expounding the verse of antichrist, "O pastor, et idolum!" That leaveth the flock. Thus Christ speaks of the hireling ( John 10:12 ). The sword shall be upon his arm, etc. The punishment denounced is in accordance with the neglect of the shepherd's duties. The sword represents the instrument of punishment, whatever it he; the right eye, the severity of the retribution ( 1 Samuel 11:2 ). The arm that ought to have defended the flock shall be withered up as by catalepsy; the eye that should have watched for their safety shall be blinded. This is the judgment on the foolish shepherd. Ewald thinks that the passage Zechariah 13:7-9 is out of place there, and belonged originally to the end of the, present chapter. Zechariah 11:17

Woe to the idol shepherd - (A shepherd of nothingness, one who hath no quality of a shepherd ;) "who leaveth the flock." The condemnation of the evil shepherd is complete in the abandonment of the sheep; as our Lord says, "He that is an hireling and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep" John 10:12-13 . Or it may equally be, "Shepherd, thou idol," including the original meaning of nothingness, such as antichrist will be, (Jerome), "while he calleth himself God, and willeth to be worshiped." Jerome: "This shepherd shall therefore arise in Israel, because the true Shepherd had said, 'I will not feed you.' He is prophesied of by another name in Daniel the prophet Daniel 9, and in the Gospel Mark 13, and in the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 2, as 'the abomination of desolation,' who shall sit in the temple of the Lord, and make himself as God. He cometh not to heal but to destroy the flock of Israel. This shepherd the Jews shall receive, whom the 'Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth; and destroy with the brightness of His coming?"' The sword shall be upon - (against) his arm and right eye His boast shall be of intelligence, and might. The punishment and destruction shall be directed against the instrument of each, the eye and the arm.

Jerome: "The eye, whereby he shall boast to behold acutely the mysteries of God, and to see more than all prophets heretofore, so that he shall call himself son of God. But the word of the Lord shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye, so that his strength and all his boast of might shall be dried up, and the knowledge which he promised himself falsely, shall be obscured in everlasting darkness." (Dionysius: "Above and against the power of antichrist, shall be the virtue and vengeance and sentence of Christ, who shall 'slay' him 'with the breath of His mouth.' The right arm, the symbol of might, and the right eye which was to direct its aim, should fail together, through the judgment of God against him. He, lately boastful and persecuting shall become blind and powerless, bereit alike of wisdom and strength. The "right" in Holy Scripture being so often a symbol of what is good, the left of what is evil, it may be also imagined, that (Osorius), "the left eye, that is, the acumen and cunning to devise deadly frauds, will remain uninjured: while the 'right eye,' that is, counsel to guard against evil, will be sunk in thick darkness. And so, the more he employs his ability to evil, the more frantically will he bring to bear destruction upon himself:"