Catholic Commentary
The Good Shepherd's Ministry and the Breaking of the Staff 'Favor'
7So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor” and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock.8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.9Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.”10I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples.11It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word.
Zechariah 11:7–11 depicts a prophetic shepherd who undertakes to feed a doomed flock while wielding two staffs—"Favor" representing divine grace and "Union" representing Israel's internal cohesion. The shepherd removes three unfaithful shepherds, withdraws provision from the people, deliberately breaks the staff of Favor to end God's protective covenant with the nations, and withdraws His beautifying presence, leaving only a remnant who perceive this judgment as God's authentic word.
God's favor is not guaranteed—persistent rejection of divine grace has consequences that unfold in history, not just in the soul.
Commentary
Zechariah 11:7 — The Shepherd Takes His Stand The prophetic action-sign opens with the Shepherd's commission: to feed "the flock destined for slaughter." This is not a pastoral idyll but a mission of mercy into a situation already marked by doom. The phrase "especially the oppressed (or 'dealers/traffickers') of the flock" is textually contested — some manuscripts read 'aniyyê, "the poor/afflicted," while others read kēn, "truly/verily" — but the Septuagint and most Catholic tradition read it as referring to the lowly and marginalized within the flock. The two staffs are central symbolic props. "Favor" (nō'am, loveliness, graciousness, pleasantness) represents God's covenantal benevolence toward Israel and its relationship with surrounding peoples — a divine shield of grace. "Union" (ḥōblîm, binders, bands) represents the internal cohesion of the Twelve Tribes, the solidarity of the people as one body. The Shepherd thus embodies both dimensions of Israel's identity: her relationship with God and her inner unity.
Zechariah 11:8 — The Three Shepherds Removed "I cut off the three shepherds in one month." This verse has generated more commentary than almost any other in Zechariah. The "three shepherds" have been identified throughout history as: the three offices of prophet, priest, and king; three specific historical rulers (various Seleucid or Hasmonean candidates have been proposed); or, in the allegorical reading dominant in Catholic tradition, the three successive leadership structures of Israel that proved unfaithful. The crucial point is the mutual loathing — the Shepherd is "weary" of them, and they "loathe" him. This is not an administrative removal but a relational rupture at the deepest level, a breakdown between the divine representative and the institutions of Israel's governance.
Zechariah 11:9 — The Withdrawal of Providence The Shepherd's declaration, "I will not feed you," is a terrifying sentence. It echoes the covenant curses of Deuteronomy and anticipates the language of Romans 1, where God "gives over" a people to the consequences of their choices. The three-fold abandonment — death, cutting off, cannibalism — is a climax of covenant curse language drawn from Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. The eating of one another's flesh is not merely metaphorical; it recalls the sieges of Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 6:24–29) and anticipates Josephus's harrowing accounts of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Zechariah 11:10 — The Breaking of Favor The deliberate snapping of the staff "Favor" is the pivotal dramatic act. The "covenant made with all the peoples" (kol-hā'ammîm) is a covenant of restraint — the divine ordinance that had held the Gentile nations back from devouring Israel. By breaking it, the Shepherd does not abrogate the Sinai covenant but withdraws the providential hedge of protection. This is an act of judicial abandonment: God removes the favor He had extended, allowing the nations their destructive course. It speaks to the mystery of divine permissive will — God does not cause evil, but He can withdraw the grace that restrains it.
Zechariah 11:11 — The Remnant Recognizes the Word Here the drama pivots. "The poor of the flock that listened to me" — the 'aniyyê — perceive what the rest cannot: that this breaking is Yahweh's word, that even in judgment God is speaking. This recognition is itself a mark of grace; the remnant are defined not by ethnic identity but by attentiveness to divine speech. The typological trajectory points toward those in Jesus's day who "had ears to hear": the disciples, the tax collectors, the sinners, the women at the cross — those who recognized in Jesus's rejection and passion the word of God rather than a defeat.
Catholic Commentary
Catholic tradition has read Zechariah 11:7–11 as a dense Messianic typology, its fulfillment accomplished most explicitly in Matthew 26:14–16 and 27:3–10. The thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas (Zech 11:12–13, just following this pericope) explicitly frames this passage as prophetically pointing to Christ's betrayal — a reading affirmed by Matthew's gospel itself under divine inspiration.
The Church Fathers were unanimous in seeing the "Good Shepherd" of verses 7–11 as a type of Christ. St. Jerome (Commentary on Zechariah) identifies the three shepherds cut off in one month as the cessation of the triple office of prophecy, priesthood, and kingship in Israel at the moment of Christ's rejection, noting that after the Passion, no prophet, legitimate high priest, or Davidic king arose among the Jewish people. St. Cyril of Alexandria reads the breaking of the staff "Favor" as the lifting of divine protection from Jerusalem, fulfilled in the Roman destruction of AD 70 — a judgment permitted, not willed, by God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§674) speaks of Israel's hardening as a mystery within salvation history, never a divine rejection of the Jewish people as a people, but a providential eclipse that itself serves eschatological ends — a nuance this passage demands. The poor of the flock who listen correspond to what Paul calls the "remnant chosen by grace" (Romans 11:5), the nucleus of the Church born from Israel's faithful.
The two staffs also speak to the Church's dual vocation: to be a community of nō'am (the favor and beauty of God's grace) and ḥōblîm (bonds of unity). The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium (§9) describes the Church as the new covenant community, called to maintain both dimensions — communion with God and unity among its members — the very gifts whose loss the breaking of the staffs mourns.
For Today
This passage confronts the contemporary Catholic with three uncomfortable questions. First, do I belong to the "poor of the flock that listened" — those who recognize God's word even in rupture, loss, and judgment — or to those who, like the faithless shepherds, find the divine presence wearisome? The anawim, the poor in spirit, are distinguished not by social class but by the posture of attentive listening.
Second, Zechariah shows that God's favor is not automatic or unconditional in its mode of operation. The staff of "Favor" can be broken — not because God stops loving, but because persistent rejection forfeits the active exercise of divine protection. This is a solemn word for parishes, dioceses, and families: continued rejection of divine grace has consequences that unfold historically, not just spiritually.
Third, the mutual loathing between the shepherd and the unfaithful leaders (v. 8) is a warning to all in pastoral office. The priest, the bishop, the catechist, the parent as domestic shepherd — all are called to reflect the Good Shepherd who came to serve even the flock marked for slaughter. When pastoral leaders exploit rather than feed the flock, they re-enact the betrayal Zechariah dramatizes.
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