Zechariah 11:9
Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
Shepherd language in the passage describes spiritual leaders entrusted with God's flock, where shepherding includes both leading and feeding, and Israel's teachers are shown to be unfit to feed the flock. The speaker is Christ in His ministry as shepherd to the Jews, declaring He will no longer feed Israel because they rejected Him as their king. That declaration was made after His anointing as Prophet, Priest, and King at the Jordan.
The refusal to feed means the withdrawal of His care and protection from Jerusalem, giving the nation up to destruction and leaving it to the consequences of its rebellion. The breaking of the staff Beauty represents that withdrawal of the promise of protection. Those appointed to death or to be cut off are left to perish, and the rest turn against one another with each eating the flesh of another. This abandonment followed the rejection and death of Jesus, while the faithful poor of the flock remained with God.
The verse foretells terrible calamities upon the Jews, fulfilled when Titus took Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and continued through the ages since in repeated persecutions in many nations of Europe and even in Russia as the bitter fruit of that rejection. The verse also portrays the close of probation, when God's Spirit is withdrawn from the world and the resulting strife and confusion consume one another.