Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty. Translate х qoneeyhen (H7069), from qaanaah (H7069), to buy], the buyers (Maurer, Vatablus, Drusius), their Roman oppressors, contrasted with "they that sell them." The Romans, as being the instruments of God's righteous judgment, did "not hold themselves guilty" (Jeremiah 50:7, "All their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice; even the Lord, the hope of their fathers"). It is meant that they might use this plea, not that they actually used it. Judah's adversaries felt no compunction in destroying them; and God, in righteous wrath against Judah, allowed it.
They that sell them - (cf. Zechariah 11:12). "Their own shepherds," below (cf. Zechariah 11:3; Zechariah 11:8). The rulers of Judah, who by their avaricious rapacity and selfishness (John 11:48; John 11:50) virtually sold their country to Rome. Their covetousness brought on Judea God's visitation by Rome. The climax of this was the sale of the innocent Messiah for the thirty pieces of silver. They thought that Jesus was thus sold, and their own selfish interest secured, by the delivery of Him to the Romans for crucifixion; but it was themselves and their country that they thus sold to the Roman "possessors." Messiah was Israel's representative (Isaiah 49:3). When He was sold the Jewish nation was thenceforth virtually sold and doomed.
Say, Blessed be the Lord ... I am rich - by selling the sheep. (Deuteronomy 29:19). So the kingdom of the ten tribes, "Ephraim," before its destruction, said, "I am become rich ... in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin" (Hosea 12:8). In short-sighted selfishness they thought they had gained their object, covetous self-aggrandizement (Luke 16:14), and hypocritically "thanked" God for their wicked gain (cf. Luke 18:11). Compare the sanctimonious hypocrisy with which the chief priests "took the silver pieces" cast down by the traitor Judas, the price paid by themselves for the awful deed, and said, "It is not lawful for us to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood." Scrupulosity and punctiliousness about minute trifles are often found connected with the most heartless selfishness, and real irreligion under the mask of superlative sanctity (Matthew 23:24; Matthew 27:4-6).
They ... say ... and their own shepherds pity them not. In the Hebrew х yo'mar (H559) ... yachmowl (H2550)] the verbs are singular - i:e., each of those that sell them saith: not one of their own shepherds pitieth them. An emphatic mode of expression, by which earth individual is represented as doing, or not doing, the action of the verb (Henderson). Hengstenberg refers the singular verbs to Yahweh, the true actor; the wicked shepherds being His unconscious instruments. Compare Zechariah 11:6. "For I will no more pity," with the Hebrew 'pitieth not' here.