NOTES for Za 11:1-17

This part of the prophecy can plunge us into pessimism, for we are permitted, and only to a very small degree, to glimpse how impenetrable the darkness can become if the Lord’s Covenant with humanity collapses. Should we understand the words of the prophecy as an exact prediction of a situation that will arise fatally and inevitably? Or should we see in Zechariah’s words a warning addressed to people: you constantly retreat from the Covenant with the Lord, reject its terms, and invariably return to the same familiar sins; look, then, at what the world will become if the Covenant that constrains you so much is dissolved; taste what life will be like after you have finally rejected the Lord.

A flock that rejects the good Shepherd will inevitably fall into the hands of a worthless shepherd who will destroy it and then perish himself. This has happened many times before, yet centuries pass and bitter experience teaches no one.