to tend a flock · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
destroy
מְאַבְּדִ֧יםme.'a.be.Dim
H6
properly · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
scatter
וּמְפִצִ֛יםu.me.fi.Tzim
H6327
to dash in pieces · conjunction + verb, hiphil active participle, masculine plural absolute
sheep
צֹ֥אןtzon
H6629
a collective name for a flock (of sheep or goats) · noun, common both genders singular construct
pasture
מַרְעִיתִ֖יmar.'i.Ti
H4830
pasturage · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 10:21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Zechariah 11:15-17 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
Ezekiel 34:2-10 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the…
Ezekiel 13:3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Matthew 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no sh…
Jeremiah 12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Jeremiah 22:22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy…
Isaiah 56:9-12 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 23:1-8
I. Here is a word of terror to the negligent shepherds. The day is at hand when God will reckon with them concerning the trust and charge committed to them: Woe be to the pastors (to the rulers, both in church and state) who should be to those they are set over as pastors to lead them, feed them, protect them, and take care of them. They are not owners of the sheep. God here calls them the sheep of my pasture, whom I am interested in, and have provided good pasture for. Woe be to those therefore who are commanded to feed God's people, and pretend to do it, but who, instead of that, scatter the flock, and drive them away by their violence and oppression, and have not visited them, nor taken a…
Woe be unto the pastors,.... Or, "O ye shepherds" or "governors", as the Targum; the civil rulers and magistrates, kings and princes of the land of Israel; since ecclesiastical rulers, the priests and prophets, are mentioned as distinct from them in Jeremiah 23:9; whose business it was to rule and guide, protect and defend, the people: but, instead of that, they were such
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord God; set them bad examples, led them into idolatry and other sins, which were the cause of their ruin, and of their being carried captive, and scattered in other countries; and their sin was the more aggravated, inasmuch as these people were the Lord's pastur…
Jeremiah 23:1-3
1. Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
1. Vae Pastoribus qui perdunt et dissipant gregem pascuorum meorum! dicit Jehova.
2. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
2. Propterea sic dicit Jehova, Deus Israel, super Pastores pascentes populum meum, Vos dissipastis gregem meum et dispulistis, et non visitastis eos (vel, oves meas;) Ecce ego visitans (hoc est, visitabo) super vos malitiam actionum vestrarum, dicit Jehova:
3. And I…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 23, Verse 1 and following) Woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear apart the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel to the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to the evil of your doings, says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture (or I will restore them to their pastures), and they shall increase and multiply. And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them. They shall not fear anymore, nor be terrified, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The prophetic discourse is directed to the shepherds, or concerning the shepherds. And because we read in the writing about Jechoniah, the second-to-last king of Judah, who was of the lineage of David: 'Earth, earth, earth, hear the words of the Lord, write down this man as childless, as a man who will not have any descendants to sit on the throne of David' (Jeremiah 22:29-30), all hope of the kingdom of Judah had been cut off: it passes on to the leaders of the Church, and the Synagogue is abandoned and condemned with its shepherds, the discourse is directed to the Apostles, of whom it is said: 'And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them, they shall not fear anymore, nor be terrified, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord' (Ezekiel 34:24). For the apostles, with confidence and without any fear, will feed the Church's flock, and the remnant of the people of Israel will be saved from all lands and will return to their fields or pastures, and they will grow and multiply. But the Lord will visit the wicked shepherds, the scribes and Pharisees, because of the malice of their studies. And we can understand this in a tropological sense, and apply it to the leaders of the Church, who do not govern the Lord's sheep worthily. In this way, the people who have been rejected and condemned are saved, while those who are deserving will remain and be saved. The shepherds who teach heresy destroy the sheep. Those who create schisms tear apart and scatter. They cast them out, those who separate from the Church against justice. Those who withhold their hand from the repentant do not visit. The Lord will have mercy on all of them, restoring them to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The gathering again of the flock, scattered by the evil shepherds, by meant of the righteous branch from the stock of David. - Jer 23:1. "Woe to shepherds that destroy and scatter the flock of my pasturing! saith Jahveh. Jer 23:2. Therefore thus saith Jahveh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, saith Jahveh. Jer 23:3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all lands whither I have driven them, and bring them back to their pasture, that they may be fruitful and increase; Jer 23:4. And will raise up over them shepherds that shall fe…
The Lord rebuked the three kings (ch 22) and contrasted them with the righteous leader he would place over his people after the Exile.
23:1 Kings in the ancient Near East were often referred to as shepherds. Good shepherds would protect and care for their people, but Judah’s kings scattered their people instead.
