Bible Strands
Zechariah 11:3
Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Zechariah delivers this oracle immediately after calling for mourning over fallen trees in 11:2 and before the Lord commands him to pasture the flock in 11:4. He addresses the audience with a warning of impending national collapse.
The words — The text highlights יִֽלְלַ֣ת (yi.Lat), meaning the wailing of the shepherds, and שַׁאֲגַ֣ת (sha.'a.Gat), meaning the roaring of the young lions. These terms contrast the mournful collapse of human leadership with the violent advance of predatory forces.
The thread — This motif of weeping shepherds and lions emerging from the Jordan thickets appears in Jeremiah 25:34 and Jeremiah 50:44, while the departure of glory echoes the naming of Ichabod in 1 Samuel 4:21. These passages collectively trace a pattern of divine judgment removing protection from Israel.
Why it lands — It demands attention to the factual collapse of leadership and the destruction of safe places, signaling that judgment is already active. It requires the reader to acknowledge that the removal of divine protection leaves society exposed to predatory forces.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 50:44 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- Jeremiah 25:34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
- 1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
- Psalms 22:21 Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!
- Isaiah 65:15 You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord GOD will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.
- Jeremiah 2:15 The young lions have roared at him; they have sounded their voices. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 2:30 “I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”
- Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Jeremiah 7:11 Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 26:6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”