The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God’s dealings with the Jews, and their reprobation.

¹ Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire consume your cedars.¹²

1. 11:1O Libanus: So Jerusalem, and more particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and from its being built of the cedars of Libanus.(Challoner)
2. 11:1Thy cedars: Thy princes and chief men.(Challoner)

² Howl, you fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the magnificent have been devastated. Howl, you oaks of Bashan, because the secure forest passage has been cut down.

³ The voice of the howling of the shepherds: for their magnificence has been devastated. The voice of the roaring of the lions: because the arrogance of the Jordan has been devastated.

⁴ Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,

⁵ which those who possessed them cut down, and they did not feel sorrow, and they sold them, saying: “Blessed be the Lord; we have become wealthy. Even their shepherds did not spare them.”

⁶ And so, I will no longer spare the inhabitants upon the earth, says the Lord. Behold, I will deliver men, each one into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. And they will cut down the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.¹

1. 11:6Every one into his neighbour’s hand, etc: This alludes to the last siege of Jerusalem, in which the different factions of the Jews destroyed one another; and they that remained fell into the hands of their king, that is, of the Roman emperor, of whom they had said, John 19.15, we have no king but Caesar.(Challoner)

⁷ And I will pasture the flock of the slaughter, because of this, O poor of the flock. And I took to myself two staffs: the one I called Handsome, and the other I called Rope, and I pastured the flock.¹²

1. 11:7The word ‘Decorem’ is masculine, so the translation is ‘Handsome,’ rather than ‘Beautiful.’ The one staff is beautiful, and the other one, Rope (or String, or Line), is useful. Now perhaps the first staff was handsome or beautiful in soul. So, the two staffs represent the contemplative life and the active life among religious and clergy.(Conte)
2. 11:7Two rods: Or shepherd’s staves, meaning the different ways of God’s dealing with his people; the one, by sweet means, called the rod of Beauty: the other, by bands and punishments, called the Cord. And where both these rods are made of no use or effect by the obstinacy of sinners, the rods are broken, and such sinners are given up to a reprobate sense, as the Jews were.(Challoner)

⁸ And I cut down three shepherds in one month. And my soul became contracted concerning them, just as their soul also varied concerning me.¹

1. 11:8Three shepherds in one month: That is, in a very short time. By these three shepherds probably are meant the latter princes and high priests of the Jews, whose reign was short.(Challoner)

⁹ And I said: I will not pasture you. Whatever dies, let it die. And whatever is cut down, let it be cut down. And let the rest of them devour, each one the flesh of his neighbor.

¹⁰ And I took my staff, which was called Handsome, and I tore it apart, so as to invalidate my pact, which I had struck with all of the people.

¹¹ And it became invalid in that day. And so they understood, just like the poor of the flock who stay close to me, that this is the word of the Lord.

¹² And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, bring me my wages. And if not, remain still. And they weighed for my wages thirty silver coins.

¹³ And the Lord said to me: Cast it towards the statuary, the handsome price at which I have been valued by them. And I took the thirty silver coins, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, towards the statuary.¹²

1. 11:13Some texts have the coins being tossed into a treasury, some towards a statuary. The spiritual meaning of this word may refer, not only to the price Judas Iscariot was paid to betray Christ, but to some future taxation by the administrative powers within the Church. God is angry at this event, but He directs the faithful to pay the tax. The treasury is the treasury of the Church; the statuary represents those leaders in the Church who are like statures, mere administrators or bureaucrats, lacking insight and compassion. Compare this to the story in the Gospels of the tax that Peter paid by catching a fish with a coin in its mouth.(Conte)
2. 11:13The statuary: The Hebrew word signifies also a potter.(Challoner)

¹⁴ And I cut short my second staff, which was called Rope, so that I might dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.¹

1. 11:14The word ‘germanitatem’ is feminine, so a translation of ‘sisterhood’ might be justifiable. However, Judah and Israel are two groups symbolically represented with the names of two men, so the translation is ‘brotherhood.’ Notice that the first staff was cut down, but the second was merely shortened.(Conte)

¹⁵ And the Lord said to me: Still they are to you the equipment of a foolish shepherd.¹

1. 11:15A foolish shepherd: This was to represent the foolish, that is, the wicked princes and priests that should rule the people, before their utter desolation.(Challoner)

¹⁶ For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish what remains standing, and he will consume the flesh of the fatted ones and break their hoofs.

¹⁷ O shepherd and idol, abandoning the flock, with a sword upon his arm and over his right eye: his arm will be withered by drought, and his right eye will be obscured by darkness.