Zechariah 11:9

"Then 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."

Here is detailed the attitude that Mitchell and other critics consider to be impossible in God; but when all else fails, God throughout human history has destroyed the incorrigibly wicked. The first great example of it was the deluge that swept over the ancient world. The whole theology of judicial hardening is little understood, but it is a fact, none the less. As Gill said:

"Here the prophet states his intention not to feed the flock but to let it die. This brings to mind two key passages. One in which Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because of her historic failure to heed the prophets (Luke 13:33-35), and the other one in which he predicted the destruction of the city (Luke 21:5,6)."[25]

Horrible as this prophecy for Israel appears, it was literally fulfilled. "Even the cannibalism described here was fulfilled literally during the final days of the siege of Titus."[26] Sword, pestilence, and famine, the three great destroyers in all wars, appear here under the metaphor appropriate to a shepherd and the sheep.