Bible Strands
Zechariah 11:4
This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh issues a prophetic command through the prophet amid a oracle of ruined shepherds and destroyed Jordan thickets. The speech functions as a divine directive preceding the enactment of judgment.
The words — רְעֵה (re'eh) means "shepherd" or "pasture," and הֲרֵגָה (haregah) translates literally to "slaughter." The text literally commands the prophet to tend livestock explicitly designated for execution.
The thread — The directive is repeated in Zechariah 11:7 where the prophet performs the pasturing, and the slaughter theme parallels the killing of prophets in Matthew 23:37. The motif of sacrificial flocks also undergirds the servant language in Romans 15:8.
Why it lands — The text records a commanded act of judgment where vulnerable livestock are treated as property for profit and death. It requires the reader to acknowledge the severity of divine sanction without minimizing the brutality of the instruction.
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
Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
Cross-references
- Zechariah 11:7 So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.
- Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
- Romans 15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs,
- Isaiah 40:9 Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
- Isaiah 49:4 But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.”
- Ezekiel 34:23 I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
- Micah 5:4 He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD His God. And they will dwell securely, for then His greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.
- Zechariah 14:5 You will flee by My mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.
- Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- Luke 19:41 As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it