4Thus said the Lord my God: ‘Feed the flock of slaughter; 5whose buyers 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. 6For 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.’ 7So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Graciousness, and the other I called Binders; and I fed the flock. 8And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; ‘for My soul became impatient of them, and their soul also loathed Me.’ 9Then said I: ‘I will not feed you; that which dieth, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them that are left eat every one the flesh of another.’ 10And I took my staff Graciousness, and cut it asunder, ‘that I might break My covenant which I had made with all the peoples.’ 11And it was broken in that day; and the poor of the flock that gave heed unto me knew of a truth that it was the word of the Lord. 12And I said unto them: ‘If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear.’ So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver. 13And the Lord said unto me: ‘Cast it into the treasury, the goodly price that I was prized at of them.’ And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the treasury, in the house of the Lord. 14Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Binders, that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel might be broken.

15And the Lord said unto me: ‘Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. 16For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not think of those that are cut off, neither will seek those that are young, nor heal that which is broken; neither will he feed that which standeth still, but he will eat the flesh of the fat, and will break their hoofs in pieces.’