Zechariah 11:9 - Exposition

I will not feed you. In consequence of their contumacy, the shepherd abandons the flock to their fate, as God threatened ( Deuteronomy 31:17 ; comp. the very similar passage in Jeremiah 15:1-3 ). Three scourges are intimated in the succeeding words—plague, war, famine, combined with civil strife. Eat every one the flesh of another (comp. Isaiah 9:20 ). Many see here a reference to the awful scenes enacted when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans, and intestine feuds filled the city with bloodshed and added to the horrors of famine.