Zechariah 11:4

"Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter."

This is a shocking reference to God's people; why are they called "the flock of slaughter"? Certainly, this is one of the most important revelations in the chapter; but the comment of Mitchell misses the whole point of this. He said, "This seems to have been ignored by those who find here a representation of the Good Shepherd."[14] Such a conclusion itself ignores the fact that it was not the Shepherd who delivered the sheep to the slaughter, but the evil shepherds whom Israel preferred to follow instead of the Good. Shepherd. Zechariah was not instructed to lead the sheep to slaughter, but to feed them "The Shepherd depicted by Zechariah can only be the Messiah."[15] The reason they were called "the flock of slaughter" sprang from the fact that slaughter was their irrevocable destiny, just so long as the Jews preferred their own evil shepherds to the True One. Zechariah's instruction here to "Feed the flock" refers to Christ himself coming into the ranks of the Chosen People to instruct and lead them in the paths of righteousness. "Last of All" God sent his Son in the hope of averting their self-motivated dash to destruction. Henry's summation here is helpful:

"The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as Isaiah sometimes was; and these verses show that, "For judgment Christ came into this world" (John 9:39); for judgment upon the Jewish nation, which were at that time hopelessly corrupted. He would have healed them, but they would not."[16]