Zechariah 11:16 - Exposition

I will raise up a shepherd in the land. God explains the reason of the symbolical character which he directed the prophet to assume. He was going to allow the people to be chastised by an instrument whom he would permit to work his will upon them. As this evil shepherd was to arise to punish them for their rejection of Messiah, he must represent some person or power that existed subsequent to Christ's death. Many consider that he symbolizes the Romans; but these people could not be deemed to exercise pastoral care over the Israelites, nor could their neglect of this (verse 17) be attributed to them as a sin; nor, again, did their destruction follow upon the overthrow of the Jewish polity (verse 18). Others see here a prediction of the coming of antichrist; but the character of "shepherd" does not suit his attributes as given elsewhere; at any rate. this cannot be the primary reference of the symbol, though all evil powers that oppose the Church of Christ are in some sense images and anticipations of antichrist. The genuine reference here is to the native chiefs and rulers ("in the land") who arose in the later times of the nation—monsters like Herod, false Christs and false prophets, hirelings who made merchandise of the flock, teachers who came in their own name ( John 5:43 ), and deceived the people to their destruction. Which shall not visit those that be cut off; or, those that are perishing. This foolish shepherd shall perform none of the offices of a good shepherd; he will not care for and tend those that are in danger of death ( Jeremiah 23:2 ). The young one; rather, those that are scattered; Septuagint, τὸ ἐσκορπισμένον : Vulgate, dispersum ( Matthew 18:12 ). That that is broken. Bruised, or with limb fractured. Feed that that standeth still; literally, that standeth; i.e. is sound and healthy. This shepherd attended neither to the diseased nor to the healthy sheep. Septuagint, τὸ δλόκληρον , "that which is whole." He shall eat the flesh of the fat. He thinks only how to get personal advantage from the flock (comp. Ezekiel 34:2-8 ). Tear their claws ( hoofs ) in pieces, as some say, by making them traverse rough places, and not caring where he led them; but as such travelling would not specially injure sheep, and as the immediate context is concerned with their treatment as food, it is better to see here a picture of a greedy and voracious man who tears asunder the very hoofs to suck out all the nourishment he can find, or one who mutilates the fattest of his flock, that they may not stray, and that he may always have a dainty morsel at hand.