This is what the LORD my God says: "Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!' Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them. For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands." So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me. Then I said, "I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another's flesh." Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD. Then I told them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And the LORD said to me: "Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “And you, son of man, take a single stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and to all the house of Israel associated with him.’ Then join them together into one stick, so that they become one in your hand. When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you explain to us what you mean by these?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick, and they will become one in My hand.’ When the sticks on which you write are in your hand and in full view of the people, you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.'"
Significance
Zechariah 11:14's breaking of the staff called "Union" (חֹבְלִים, chovlim), which "broke the brotherhood between Judah and Israel," stands in stark contrast to Ezekiel 37:15-28's vision of two sticks (עֵץ, etz) — one for Judah and one for Joseph/Ephraim — being joined into one in God's hand, symbolizing reunification under "My servant David" (37:24). Both texts use paired symbolic objects (staffs/sticks) to represent the divided kingdoms, but with opposite outcomes: Ezekiel promises unification, Zechariah dramatizes its dissolution. Zechariah's breaking of the Union staff suggests that the rejection of God's good shepherd (11:8-12) results in the undoing of the very reunification Ezekiel prophesied, creating a narrative tension that awaits eschatological resolution. Ezekiel's promise is emphatic—one nation (גּוֹי אֶחָד, goy echad) under one king (מֶלֶךְ אֶחָד, melekh echad), sealed by an everlasting covenant and a permanent sanctuary—which makes the fracture Zechariah dramatizes all the sharper.
