Zechariah 11

11 ¹Open your doors, Lebanon—make fire chop your cedar trees! ²Cry well-well, cypress tree, because di cedar don fall, di fine-fine big trees don spoil! Cry well-well, oak trees of Bashan, because di thick forest don come down! ³Listen—di crying of di shepherd people, because their glory don spoil! Listen—di roaring of young lion, because di bush for Jordan don spoil!

⁴Na dis my Papa talk: Take care of di sheep wey dem mark for slaughter.

⁵Di people wey buy dem dey kill dem, and nobody dey punish dem; di people wey sell dem dey talk, “Make we praise God, I don rich!”—and their own shepherd no dey pity dem at all. ⁶Because I no go pity di people of di land again, na wetin our Papa talk. I dey hand everybody over—each person into di hand of im neighbour and im king; dem go crush di land, and I no go rescue anybody from their hand.

⁷So I take care of di sheep wey dem mark for slaughter, di ones wey dem dey oppress pass. I take two stick, I call one Favour and di other one Union, and I take care of di sheep. ⁸For one month I comot di three shepherd. I no fit endure dem again, and dem too hate me. ^a a v8 Nobody sabi who ‘di three shepherd’ be; no scholar own explanation don win agreement. ⁹Then I talk, “I no go take care of una again. Make di one wey dey die die, make di one wey dem don doom perish, and make di ones wey remain chop each other body.”

¹⁰I take my stick Favour and I break am, to break di Covenant wey I bin make with all di people. ¹¹So dem break am for dat day, and di poor sheep wey dey watch me sabi say na di word of our Papa be dis. ¹²I talk give dem, “If e correct for una eye, give me my pay; if e no correct, keep am.” So dem weigh out my pay—thirty piece of silver. ^b b v12 Dis thirty piece of silver na di very price wey di New Testament call di money wey dem pay to betray Jesus (Matthew 27:9-10).

¹³Then our Papa talk give me, “Throw am give di potter”—di big price wey dem value me reach! So I take di thirty piece of silver and I throw am inside di house of our Papa, give di potter.

¹⁴Then I break my second stick, Union, to end di brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then our Papa talk give me, “Carry di gear of foolish shepherd one more time. ¹⁶Because I dey raise up one shepherd for di land wey no go take care of di ones wey dey perish, no go look for di ones wey scatter, no go heal di ones wey break, no go feed di healthy ones—but e go chop di flesh of di fat ones and tear commot their hoof. ¹⁷Wahala for my useless shepherd, wey abandon di sheep! Make sword fall on im arm and on im right eye! Make im arm dry up completely, and make im right eye go blind finish!”