11:12. And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring hither my wages: and if not, be quiet. And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
11:13. And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord to the statuary.
The statuary… The Hebrew word signifies also a potter.
11:14. And I cut off my second rod that was called a Cord, that I might break the brotherhood between Juda and Israel.
11:15. And the Lord said to me: Take to thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
A foolish shepherd… This was to represent the foolish, that is, the wicked princes and priests that should rule the people, before their utter desolation.
11:16. For behold I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish that which standeth, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat ones, and break their hoofs.
11:17. O shepherd, and idol, that forsaketh the flock: the sword upon his arm and upon his right eye: his arm shall quite wither away, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
Zacharias Chapter 12
God shall protect his church against her persecutors. The mourning of
Jerusalem.