Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 34:18
[Seemeth it] a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?
18. The words are addressed to the rams and he-goats the magnates and ruling classes.
deep waters ] clear (lit. settled) waters, cf. Eze 32:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 18. Have eaten up the good pasture] Arrogate to yourselves all the promises of God, and will hardly permit the simple believer to claim or possess any token of God’s favour.
Ye must foul the residue with your feet?] Ye abuse God’s mercies; you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more, on which the poor would have been glad to feed. There are some who would rather give food to their sporting dogs than to the poor around them, who are ready to starve, and who would be glad of the crumbs that fall from the table of those masters!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God awakens them by this interrogatory to think first, and then speak what this is. When you are full fed, and others hungry and ready to starve, who might live on that you leave if you did not spoil it, do you think such killing is no crime? Is it not a very great cruelty, and a most barbarous inhumanity? You great ones, who have much more than others, partly by the bounty of the Lord of the sheep, and partly by your injustice and rapine, you eat the fat and sweet, and what you cannot eat you waste and spoil; and what would you say, if your proud, fat, and spiteful servants in your houses should do so to their weaker, leaner, and modester servants?
The deep waters; which are clear to the eye and pleasant, which are sweet to their palate, which are wholesome to the drinker.
Ye must foul the residue with your feet; in spite as much as wantonness you stamp in them, raise all the mud from the bottom, that makes the waters unfit to be drunk: is this a trivial thing thus to starve and choke those you should feed and refresh? Such hath been the carriage of you rich, powerful, ruling, and governing part of my people, who have been forced either to live on what you made unwholesome and noxious, or to starve at home, or seek somewhat abroad; this hath destroyed many and dispersed more, but I will not always wink at and bear this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18, 19. Not content withappropriating to their own use the goods of others, they from merewantonness spoiled what they did not use, so as to be of no use tothe owners.
deep watersthat is,”limpid,” as deep waters are generally clear.GROTIUS explains the imageas referring to the usuries with which the rich ground the poor(Eze 22:12; Isa 24:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture,…. This is directed to the rams and he goats, to the people of power and wealth, or who had the key of knowledge and instruction; who, by their conduct, showed as if it was not enough for them to eat and drink the best of things themselves, to enjoy their wealth and riches, and keep their posts of honour and profit, and the revenues of them, in church and state:
but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? but they must oppress the poor, by taking away from them that little they have; or by making their lives uncomfortable to them, by their severities and exactions; so that that small pittance they had, they cannot enjoy with any pleasure, The allusion is to beasts in pasture, which tread down and put dung what they do not eat, which makes what is left unfit for others; and to cattle, at ponds of water, which having drank, foul the rest with their feet; as camels particularly are said to do; so that others cannot drink after them, at least not so agreeably: this may be applied to the Scribes and Pharisees, and such as they were, who devoured widows’ houses, and made void the word and commandments of God, by their traditions; teaching for doctrines the commandments of men; and so polluted the pure waters of the sanctuary; defiled the Scriptures of truth, and delivered out such doctrines as were not food and drink to the souls of men, and yet were obliged to receive them; and such are heretical persons, who sometimes arise out of the churches, are a part of the flock, that corrupt the word of God, pervert the Scriptures, and handle them deceitfully; and may be said to tread down and trample upon the wholesome truths of the Gospel, and to muddy the clear doctrines of grace; so that the children of God cannot, as they desire, have the pure, unmixed, sincere milk of the word.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) Tread down . . . foul the residue.The charge against them is that they not only first supplied and took care of themselves, but with careless insolence destroyed what should have been for others.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 34:18 [Seemeth it] a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?
Ver. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you. ] Extenuant hypocritae suam culpam honesto titulo. a Hypocrites make the best and the least of their sins, which good men acknowledge with aggravation; but the works of the flesh are manifest. And here we have a lively picture of the Popish clergy, who eat up the best, and tread down the rest, et pro salutaribus aquis suam salivam hominibus obtrudunt, and for wholesome, obtrude brackish waters upon men to quench their thirst,
a Oecolamp.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Seemeth it: or, supply “Is it”.
you: i.e. ye goats. The verse goes on to describe the evil work of the goats in fouling the pastures of the sheep. There is a solemn application of this to the churches and congregations in the present day,
your: i.e. the goats.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a small: Eze 16:20, Eze 16:47, Gen 30:15, Num 16:9, Num 16:13, 2Sa 7:19, Isa 7:13
to have: Eze 34:2, Eze 34:3, Mic 2:2, bread, Eze 32:2, Mat 15:6-9, Mat 23:13, Luk 11:52
Reciprocal: 1Ki 16:31 – as if it had been a light thing Eze 32:13 – neither Eze 34:8 – the shepherds Eze 34:13 – and feed Zec 11:5 – and their
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 34:18. The imagery for purposes of illustration is still that of a pasture and the creatures living therein. These selfish ones among the Israelite nation are compared to the strong he goats that eat the best of the pasture regardless of the needs of others. But they did not stop at that In their cruel selfishness. After satisfying their own greedy appetite with the best of the field, they trampled the remaining part with their feet. And after satisfying their thirst with the deep or pure water, they wade into the other watering places In order to defile them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
34:18 [Seemeth it] a small thing to you to have eaten up the good {i} pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? and to have drank of the deep waters, but ye must foul the rest with your feet?
(i) By good pasture and deep waters is meant the pure word of God and the administration of justice which they did not distribute to the poor till they had corrupted it.