¹sn In this poetic piece, plants and animals provide the imagery for rulers, especially evil ones (cf. respectively Isa 10:33-34; Ezek 31:8; Amos 2:9; Nah 2:12).
²sn The expression those who buy them appears to be a reference to the foreign nations to whom Israel’s own kings “sold” their subjects. Far from being good shepherds, then, they were evil and profiteering. The whole section (vv. 4-14) refers to the past when the Lord, the Good Shepherd, had in vain tried to lead his people to salvation and life.
³sn The first person pronoun refers to Zechariah himself who, however, is a “stand-in” for the Lord as the actions of vv. 8-14 make clear. The prophet, like others before him, probably dramatized the account of God’s past dealings with Israel and Judah (cf. Hos 1-3; Isa 20:2-4; Jer 19:1-15; 27:2-11; Ezek 4:1-3).
⁴tc For the MT reading yY}n]u& /k@l* (lakhen ’aniyyey, “therefore the [most] afflicted of”) the LXX presupposes yYn}u&n~k=l! (“to the merchants of”). The line would then read “So I began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter for the sheep merchants.” This helps to explain the difficult /k@l* (lakhen) here but otherwise has no attestation or justification.
⁵sn The two staffs represent the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. For other examples of staffs representing tribes or nations see Num 17:1-11; Ezek 37:15-23.
⁶tn The Hebrew term <u^n{ (no’am) is traditionally translated “favor.”
sn The name of the first staff, pleasantness, refers to the rest and peace of the covenant between the Lord and his people (cf. v. 10).
⁷tn The Hebrew term <yl!b=j) (khovlim) is traditionally translated “union” (NAB “Bonds”; NRSV “Unity”).
sn The name of the second staff, Binders, refers to the relationship between Israel and Judah (cf. v. 14).
⁸sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1-25:7).
⁹sn The speaker (Zechariah) represents the Lord, who here is asking what his service as faithful shepherd has been worth in the opinion of his people Israel.
¹⁰sn If taken at face value, thirty pieces (shekels) of silver was worth about two and a half years’ wages for a common laborer. More likely this number is synonymous to a pittance, not worth considering (cf. Exod 21:32; Lev 27:4; Matt 26:15).
¹¹tn Heb “splendor of splendor” (rq*y+h^ rd\a#, ’eder hayqar). This expression sarcastically draws attention to the incredibly low value placed upon the Lord’s redemptive grace by his very own people.
¹²tn The Syriac presupposes rx*oah* (ha’otsar, “treasury”) for the MT rx@oYh^ (hayyotser, “potter”) perhaps because of the lack of evidence for a potter’s shop in the area of the temple. Matthew seems to favor this when he speaks of Judas having thrown the thirty shekels for which he betrayed Jesus into the temple treasury (27:5-6). However, careful reading of the whole gospel pericope makes it clear that the money actually was used to purchase a “potter’s field,” hence Zechariah’s reference to a potter.
¹³tn Heb “house.”
¹⁴sn The grammar (e.g., the incipient participle <yq!m@, maqim, “about to raise up,” v. 16) and overall sense of vv. 15-17 give the incident a future orientation. Zechariah once more is role-playing but this time he is a “foolish” shepherd, i.e., one who does not know God and who is opposed to him (cf. Prov 1:7; 15:5; 20:3; 27:22). The individual who best encapsulates this eschatological enemy of God and his people is the Antichrist (cf. Matt 24:5, 24; 2 Thess 2:3-4; 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7).
¹⁵tn Heb “the broken.”
¹⁶tn Heb “the fat [ones].”