Zechariah Chapter 11 verse 8 Holy Bible
And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
read chapter 11 in ASV
And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the flock; for my soul was tired of them, and their souls were disgusted with me.
read chapter 11 in BBE
And I destroyed three shepherds in one month; and my soul was vexed with them, and their soul also loathed me.
read chapter 11 in DARBY
Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
read chapter 11 in KJV
read chapter 11 in WBT
I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
read chapter 11 in WEB
And I cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul is grieved with them, and also their soul hath abhorred me.
read chapter 11 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - In executing the office of feeding the flock, three shepherds also I out off in one month; Septuagint, "And I will take away the three shepherds in one month." The article in the Hebrew and Greek seems to point to some known shepherds, three in number, unless we take it as "threes of the shepherds." Hence expositors have sought to find historical personages to whom the term might apply. Those who assert a pre-exilian origin for this part of the prophecy, suggest the three kings, Zachariah, Shallum, and Menahem; or, as Menahem reigned ten years, some unrecorded pretender, who started up at the time. Others see some Syrian monarchs in Maccabean times; or the three offices, king, prophet, priest; or the three dynasties that oppressed Israel, viz. the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Macedonian. All these interpretations fail in some point; and we are reduced to see herein a reference, as Cheyne says, to "the prompt and vigorous action of Jehovah's Shepherd in dealing with the evil shepherds, as well as in feeding the flock;" the number three being used indefinitely. Or we may find in this number an allusion to the three classes in ver. 5 - the buyers, the sellers, and the pitiless shepherds. The oppressors, external and internal, are removed and cut off in one month. To the prophet's eye all this seemed to take place in that short space of time. If anything more is intended, we may, with Keil and others, taking the month as consisting of thirty days, assume that ten days are assigned to the destruction of each shepherd, after each had fulfilled his allotted period - the number ten expressing perfection or completion. And my soul loathed them; literally, but my soul was straitened for them; i.e. was impatient, weary of them. These words begin a new paragraph, and refer, not to the three shepherds, but to the sheep, the Israelites. The prophet now shows how ill the people had responded to God's manifold care, and mingles with the past a view of their future ingratitude and disobedience which will bring upon them final ruin. God, as it were, was weary of their continual backslidings and obstinate perseverance in evil. (For the phrase, see Numbers 21:4; Judges 16:16; Job 21:4.) It is the opposite to long suffering. Their soul also abhorred me. They showed their abhorrence by their devotion to idols and their disinclination for all goodness.
