Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 23:2
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. feed ] Heb. shepherd. Cp. Jer 3:15.
scattered ] by exile, voluntary or forced, in Egypt or Babylon.
driven them away ] the opposite of that which is an Eastern shepherd’s duty, viz. to go before his flock, leading them to pasture or fold (Isa 40:11; Joh 10:3 f.).
visited visit upon ] The twofold sense of the Hebrew word is kept up in the English. Because the shepherds have not visited their flock for good, they shall themselves be visited with punishment.
3, 4 are considered by Co., but quite needlessly, to reflect a position of affairs which was later than Jeremiah’s date. The same critic, however, retains, though somewhat doubtfully, 7, 8, against which he might have brought the same objection. Moreover, the words “be fruitful and multiply” (see on Jer 3:16) are not decisive against the genuineness of the v. here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They had scattered them first spiritually by leading them into idolatry; and secondly, many had literally been taken to Egypt with Jehoahaz, many in Jehoiakims time had fled there, while others fell away to the Chaldaeans: and finally the best of the land had been carried to Babylon with Jeconiah.
Driven away – i. e., made them outcasts. In the East, shepherds never drive their flocks, but go ahead of them Joh 10:4-5.
Have not visited them – i. e., have not concerned yourselves about their conduct.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Ye have scattered my flock] The bad government both in Church and State was a principal cause of the people’s profligacy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That feed my people: God calleth them his people, his flock, the sheep of his pasture, with respect to the ancient covenant which God had made with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are said to have fed this people, because it was their duty, and the business of their office, so to have done, though they had failed in it, and had done the quite contrary, scattering them by their acts of violence and oppression, and driving them from their places to seek some more safe and quiet places of abode; or by their prodigious wickednesses, having been the cause of their being carried into captivity: not visiting them, that is, taking any due care of their good and welfare, seeing what they wanted, and supplying them, as good rulers ought to have done; for which neglect God threateneth to visit upon them the evil of their doings. The Hebrew word signifieth to visit with a visitation of care and love, and also with a visitation of justice and severity, and is often so used in holy writ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Ye have not . . . visited them .. . I will visit upon youjust retribution. Play upon thedouble sense of “visit.” “Visit upon,” namely, inwrath (Ex 32:34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel,…. The covenant God of that people, who are Called his sheep, and the sheep of his pasture; having made a covenant with their fathers, and provided a good pasture for them, the land of Israel, where they enjoyed all blessings, civil and religious, and appointed persons over them to feed them; but these did not do their duty, and therefore the Lord was against them, as follows:
against the pastors that feed my people; whose office it was to feed, rule, and defend them; and who pretended to do it, but did it not;
ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; they had been the means of their being driven out of their dwellings, and out of their own land, and of their being among the nations of the world, and took no care for the return of them, any more than they concerned themselves for their welfare when over them; or they suffered the enemy, like beasts of prey, to come in among them, which scattered them, and drove them from their pasture, as sheep are by bears, dogs, and wolves; and took no care to preserve them from them, or to gather them together again to their pasture. The people of the Jews, at the time when Christ came, hereafter prophesied of, were scattered as sheep without a shepherd, and are called the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mt 9:36;
behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord; that is, punish them for their iniquities; since they visited not the flock in a way of mercy and kindness, as the duty of their office required, the Lord would visit them in a way of justice, and punish them according to their deserts.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He afterwards adds, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, to the pastors who feed my people In the same sense he calls them now his people, as he had called them before the flock of his pastures. They had alienated themselves from God, and he had already by his own decree repudiated them; and God might in one respect have deemed them aliens; and yet in respect of the covenant he acknowledged them as his own; and hence he calls them his people He now then confirms what we have already noticed, that these pastors were not only thieves and robbers, but also sacrilegious; for they not only had exercised cruelty towards the flock, but as far as they could injured and dishonored God himself, who had undertaken the care of that people.
But there is here a twofold concession, he calls them pastors, and they are said to feed the people. He had said before that they destroyed and scattered the flock, and now he says that they fed them; but in what sense we well know, for by this kind of irony he meant to reprove them; they boasted that they were pastors, and they thought that their crimes would by such a covering be buried in the sight of God, as in the sight of men. In a similar manner when we speak in the present day of the Pope and his mitred bishops and filthy clergy, we use expressions which are commonly employed. But Antichrist is everything but a father, and we know how far they are from being really bishops who assume the title; and as to the clergy, the name is sacred, but they are very far from being God’s heritage. We indeed make no account of these empty titles. But it is a great aggravation of their guilt, that they being devils, should assume angelic names, that they being wolves and robbers, and sacrilegious, should falsely pretend God’s name, and recommend themselves by spurious titles, as though they were pastors, bishops, abbots, and prelates, and what not.
So then our Prophet calls those whom he condemns, by way of taunt, pastors, and says that they fed, that is, were called for this end, to do this work. But he afterwards adds, My flock have ye scattered, and driven away, and not visited (75) Surely it was not to feed, to have no care for the sheep. To visit is to be extended here to every part of the duty of overseeing, as though he had said, that the flock had been by them neglected, betrayed, and deserted. We hence see that they had wholly neglected their pastoral office. But the other two things are still worse, for they had scattered and driven away the flock. Their sloth in neglecting the flock was not to be tolerated; but it was still more intolerable when they exercised so much cruelty as to scatter the flock as though they were deadly enemies; and yet these are the things for which Jeremiah condemns them. We hence see that there was an implied taunt, when he conceded to them the office of feeding.
He then denounces judgment on them, I will visit upon you the wickedness of your doings Here God declares that he would punish the pastors, to whom was justly ascribed the scattering of the people. For though no one was exempt from blame, as it has been before stated; yet the main fault belonged to these pastors. This then is the reason why God declares that he would take vengeance; for he would not have his flock scattered with impunity.
(75) The meaning seems to be that they had caused the flock to be scattered and driven away through their bad conduct, because they did not take care of them, as the last verb means. The two first verbs are indeed in Hiphil, and may be rendered causatively thus, —
Ye have caused my sheep to be scattered, And have caused them to be driven away; And ye have not cared for them.
The last verb is not in Hiphil, and states the reason why the sheep had been dispersed. It means to oversee, to take care of, to attend to. The dispersion was owing to the neglect of the pastors in taking care of the sheep. The scattering or dispersion was their exile; which God states in the third verse was his act as a punishment for their wickedness, but the cause of dispersion was the conduct of the pastors.
We see here an instance of the order in which ideas are often stated by the Prophets. Scattering, though mentioned first, is the last act, the most ostensible; the driving out of the land was the previous act, and the first in order, though the last stated, was the neglect of the pastors in taking an oversight of them. It is to begin with the effect and to go back to the cause. “You have caused them to be scattered to all lands, you have made them to be driven out of their own land, and you have neglected to take care of them.” These are the three points of accusation, but stated in an inverted order. There are constant instances of this kind of arrangement. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Ye have scattered my flock.The charge was true literally as well as spiritually. The dispersion of the people in Egypt, Assyria, and Chalda was the result of the neglect, the tyranny, the feebleness of their rulers. They had been led, not as the Eastern shepherd leads (Joh. 10:4-5), but drivennot to the fold, but away into far lands.
Have not visited.i.e., cared for and regarded. They were negligent, but God was not, and He therefore would visit them by reproof and chastisement.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. The pastors In the first verse the article is not in the original, and is incorrectly introduced into the Version. It is a general principle. Woe to shepherds any and all shepherds when they destroy and scatter the sheep; that is, when they themselves do that which they are specially set to prevent. But in this verse the article is used to identify those to whom this woe now applies.
Scattered driven As the wolf does. The Eastern shepherd does not drive his flock, but “goeth before them.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 23:2 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.
Ver. 2. Against the pastors. ] Impostors, rather.
That feed my people.
Ye have scattered my flock.
Behold, I will visit upon you.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD God of Israel. See note on Jer 11:3.
God. Hebrew. Elohim.
that feed = that are the feeders of. Figure of speech Antimereia (of the Verb).
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
I will visit, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 32:34).
evil. Hebrew ra’a.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and have: Mat 25:36, Mat 25:43, Jam 1:27
I: Jer 23:34, *marg. Jer 5:9, Jer 5:29, Jer 8:12, Jer 11:22, Jer 13:21, *marg. Exo 32:34, Hos 2:13, Mic 7:4
Reciprocal: Lev 18:25 – therefore Num 14:18 – visiting 1Ki 22:17 – as sheep 2Ch 18:16 – as sheep Psa 78:52 – like a Jer 2:8 – the pastors Jer 13:20 – where Jer 22:22 – thy pastors Jer 23:1 – pastors Jer 25:12 – punish Jer 50:17 – a scattered Eze 13:2 – prophesy against Eze 34:5 – they were Eze 34:22 – will I Hos 1:4 – avenge Zec 10:3 – anger Zec 11:5 – possessors Zec 11:16 – which Act 15:36 – Let 1Co 9:7 – or 1Pe 2:25 – ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 23:2, Have scattered my flock is a figure of speech that is appropriate in connection with a shepherd which is the illustration chosen in the case. Have driven them away had not yet been done literally except that the people were actually alienated from God by the evil practices of these pastors. Have not visited them is another term appropriate to the illustration of a pastor or shepherd. A shepherd is supposed to go and look after his Hock to see if any of the sheep are in need. These shepherds had about lost all Care for the flock and were bestowing the provisions on themselves that the chief Shepherd had placed in their hands for His fiock (Eze 34:8). For this great neglect of duty the Lord decreed severe punishment upon them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 23:2-4. Therefore thus saith the Lord against the pastors that feed my people That undertake the care of my people, though they do not faithfully execute their trust. God calls them his people, his flock, the sheep of his pasture, with respect to the ancient covenant which he had made with their fathers. They are said to have fed this people, because it was their duty to have done so. Ye have scattered my flock Namely, by acts of violence and oppression, driving them from their places to seek more safe and quiet abodes. Or, instead of looking after them, you have suffered them to be dispersed, and through your ill example they have gone astray to idolatry, and that, with your other sins, has brought upon them their expulsion from their own land and a general dispersion. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings Will deal with you as your sins have deserved. They would not visit the flock in the way of duty, and therefore God will visit them in a way of vengeance. And I will gather the remnant of my flock Though there be but a remnant of my flock, a little remnant left, that has narrowly escaped destruction, I will gather that remnant; will find them out wherever they are, and will find out ways and means to bring them back out of all countries whither I have driven them. It was the justice of God for the sins of their shepherds that dispersed them, but the mercy of God shall gather them when the shepherds that betrayed them are cut off. And being brought to their former habitations, as sheep to their folds, there they shall be fruitful, and increase in numbers. And I will set up shepherds over them Who shall make it their business, not only to rule, but also to feed them, namely, with knowledge and understanding. They shall fear no more As they formerly did, when they were continually exposed to the oppressions of their rulers at home, or the invasions and assaults of their enemies from abroad; but they shall be preserved in peace and safety, and none of them shall be lacking. Though the times may have been long bad with the church, it does not follow that they will be always so. Such pastors as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, though they did not live in such pomp as Jehoiakim and Jeconiah lived in, nor made such a figure, were as great blessings to the people as the others were plagues to them. The peace and prosperity of the church are not connected with, much less do they depend upon, the pomp of her rulers.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds that {c} 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.
(c) Whose charge is to feed the flock but they eat the fruit of it, Eze 34:3 .