What Does Zechariah 11:14 Mean in the King James?

Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Zechariah 11:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The staff called “Bands” is named for what binds, so cutting it makes the brotherhood’s rupture visible.

THE MEANING

Brotherhood appears here as a bond that can be cut. The rupture reaches the relationship itself: Judah and Israel’s brotherhood is broken.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Shared kinship does not make a bond unbreakable; the verse shows that brotherhood can be fractured when its binding is cut.

THE ROOT

חֹבְלִים

ḥōḇlîm

GROWS FROM

חבל

ḥ-b-l

To bind; a cord or rope that holds things together.

“Bands” names cords or binders, carrying the root’s image of binding. The verse pictures brotherhood as held by a bond, then deliberately severs that binding.

ALSO GROWS

ḥevel: Cord, rope.

חֶבֶל

This is the concrete image behind “Bands”: a strand that binds can also be cut.

ḥāval: To bind or take as a pledge.

חָבַל

A pledge binds someone to an obligation, extending the root’s image from cords to a social bond.

THE PATTERN

Brotherhood is a real bond that may be protected from strife, enjoyed in unity, or restored across division.

And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.

Genesis 13:8 · KJVBrotherhood is named as a bond that makes strife answerable.

A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Psalm 133:1 · KJVUnity is shown as the goodness of brotherhood’s intact bond.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Ephesians 2:14 · KJVUnity appears as a dividing wall broken so that two are made one.

THE THREAD

Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

Ezekiel 37:19 · KJV

Zechariah’s Bands staff is cut to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel; Ezekiel’s sticks bring Judah and Israel’s fellows together until they become one. The shared image makes division and reunion visible as opposite outcomes.

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