Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 23:4
And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
4. shepherds ] The picture is probably that of righteous rulers, such as princes and judges, placed in authority under the ideal king. Cp. Isa 1:26; Isa 32:1.
lacking ] missing, like sheep which in the absence of the shepherd have become the prey of wild beasts.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shepherds – Men like Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Maccabees, raised up especially by God. It is a revocation of the promise made to David 2Sa 7:12-16 so far as the earthly throne was concerned.
They shall fear no more … – The effect of good government will be general security.
Neither shall they be lacking – Not one sheep shall be missing or lost.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 23:4
I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them.
God-appointed pastors
God, in His wisdom, has most clearly indicated to every man his work. The doer carries within him the fitness for the work to be done. Each has most certainly been made for the other. A law of God brought them face to face at lifes threshold. The same law unites them, when not interfered with, and stamps the union as Divine. As the vessel from the potters hand, so we from the Divine mind. We and our work move along one continuous line till we scale the golden stairway where we end the now and begin the hereafter. The place to be occupied by us may possibly be of the most humble, but man is not estimated because of the place so much as how he filled it. Move along the line of Gods plan and you will tap the fountain of Divine help. Each of Gods intelligent workers has been given a place in the whitened fields, along the line of workers, and no position necessary to the many enterprises of the world has been by the great Creator forgotten. We are not surprised then, in the least, that the children of God should be provided with leaders, and that He would approach His flock and assure them of such provision made in their behalf. The men whom God has touched with a Divine sense of this sacred calling have adaptation to the work. God makes no mistakes in classifying His workers. His divinely appointed shepherds whom He will place over His people carry the evidence of such intention in their physical and spiritual construction. God prepares the shepherd to do the shepherds work, and for him to throw himself out of his Divine gearing is to live an inharmonious life and walk where God could not walk with him, nor furnish him a comforting promise. The world would move as one harmonious whole, if every creature would keep within the laws made to govern him, and wear as his armour the outfit his Creator gave him. Like Moses, many may see from a human standpoint impossibilities in the way; but the same God, now as then, is abundantly able, willing, and ready to remove them. Woe and disappointment have been inevitable to all such as have overpowered this sense of Gods wish, and have sought to follow some idle suggestion which reached the pride of the heart through the lust of the eye. With a shepherds construction, having head, heart, and hand divinely adjusted to so important a calling, how readily each function reaches out, as the petal for the dew, after every nutritious element adapted to its growth. He who is to minister in holy things, early finds his thoughts running along the line of Gods thoughts, and if he will yield to the Spirits sweet influence, will gradually as growth gravitate to within the necessary sources for his equipment. While mental culture and literary discipline are necessary, and a holy familiarity with the doctrines of the Bible, the ministers wall and roof, yet Gods ambassadors are expected to feed the flock of the fruit which comes from the bounty these attainments have led them to. The ministers knowledge should be principally used as the means to the end. Our peculiar gifts must be called into liveliest action and placed well to the forefront, and whatever else we may possess in the line of mental or spiritual gifts should be made to contribute subordinate, but loyal, help. But it is not enough that the doctrine be sound. While truth can be nothing but truth, and sound doctrine nothing less than sound, yet, the effect produced is all the better for having come from pure lips, and a heart known to be sincere. The man of God ordained to the high office of shepherd, whoso business it is to minister in holy things, and preside at His altar, should, as far as it is possible, live along the line of Christs life. Without this he cannot be the safest counsel for the flock entrusted to his care. He should not only know how to instruct, but how to live, so that his doctrine and his life may not antagonise. Like Christ, he must do as well as teach. His should be a life of simplicity, free from exceptional practices and evil habits. Bold and fearless, yet humble and unostentatious. Mingling freely with the people, but in modest, quiet reserve. His language should always be the most chaste. His business relations with all men should be of the pleasantest character. Pulpit brilliancy may fill the pews and produce applause, but often spoils the preacher and cools the church. With an eloquent pulpit the church falls an easy prey to pride and vanity, losing sight of her humble, but dignified, mission, permitting the undershepherd to use the temple of God for self-glory. Bernard, whose power came from his tenderness and simplicity, on one occasion preached a very scholarly sermon. The learned only thanked him and gave applause. The next day he preached plainly and tenderly, as had been his custom, and the good, the humble and the godly gave thanks and invoked blessings upon his head, which some of the scholarly wondered at. Ah! said he, yesterday I preached Bernard, but to-day I preached Christ. Congregations should arise from their pews more impressed with the power of Gospel facts than with well-rounded sentences and lofty flights of oratory. The Christian hearer should be made to feel the need of greater consecration. The sinner should be made to feel the remorse which comes from a correct estimate of a lost soul for which he has nothing to give in exchange. (A. J. Douglas.)
Preachers must feed the people
From the deck of an Austrian gunboat we threw into the Lago Garda a succession of little pieces of bread, and presently small fishes came in shoals, till there seemed to be, as the old proverb puts it, more fish than water. They came to feed, and needed no music. Let the preacher give his people food, and they will flock around him, even if the sounding brass of rhetoric, and the tinkling cymbals of oratory are silent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Food attractive
Everybody knows that large flocks of pigeons assemble at the stroke of the great clock in the square of St. Mark: believe me, it is not the music of the bell which attracts them, they can hear that every hour. They come, Mr. Preacher, for food, and no mere sound will long collect them. This is a hint for filling your meeting-house; it must be done not merely by that fine, bell-like voice of yours, but by all the neighbourhoods being assured that spiritual food is to be had when you open your mouth. Barley for pigeons, good sir; and the Gospel for men and women. Try it in earnest, and you cannot fail. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: some think this prophecy was fulfilled in Nehemiah and Zerobabel, who were pious and good governors, and consulted in their government the good of the people committed to their trust, Neh 2:10; 5:14. Others rather understand it of Christian princes and governors under the gospel.
And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed; under whom they shall live peaceably and securely.
Neither shall they be lacking; and none of them shall perish. The two last passages of this verse incline interpreters to think that this promise doth not so much refer to their coming out of Babylon, as to their spiritual deliverance by Christ, for after their return out of Babylon they were not secure long, but feared Sanballat and Tobiah, the Grecians, and Romans, and other enemies; besides that the last words exactly agree with Joh 10:28, when Christ saith his sheep should not perish, and it appears Jer 23:6 that the prophet is speaking of a time when not Judah only, but Israel also, should be saved, and the next verse doth manifestly refer unto Christ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And I will set shepherds over them, which shall feed them,…. Good shepherds, rulers and governors, that shall rule them with wholesome laws, and protect and defend them; such as Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and others, after the captivity: or Christian kings and princes, when the Gospel came to be published and established in many kingdoms and provinces, and the sheep of Christ were gathered out of them. Jerom interprets these shepherds of the apostles of Christ; and it may include other ministers of the Gospel, who feed Christ’s sheep with knowledge and understanding; see Jer 3:15;
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed; not the shepherds, as Jerom understands it, but the sheep. This looks as if this prophecy had respect to more future times than those immediately following the return from the Babylonish captivity; since the Jews were made to fear, and were dismayed by Sanballat and Tobiah, and, in later times, by the Greeks and Romans; even to the times of Christ, and the Gospel dispensation; in which the saints receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but, through the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, of Christ, have much spiritual peace and boldness of faith, and fear no enemy;
neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord; not one of the sheep brought back, or of the remnant gathered, shall be missing or lost; this is exactly true of Christ’s sheep, Joh 10:28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When the Lord shall gather His people out of the dispersion, then will He raise up shepherds over them who will so feed them that they shall no longer need to fear or to be dismayed before enemies who might be strong enough to subjugate, slay, and carry them captive. The figurative expressions are founded on the idea that the sheep, when they are neglected by the shepherds, are torn and devoured by wild beasts; cf. Eze 34:8. They shall not be lacking; cf. for with this force, 1Sa 25:7; in substance = not be lost. is chosen with a view to (Jer 23:2): because the shepherds did not take charge of the sheep, therefore the sheep are scattered and lost. Hereafter this shall happen no more. The question as to how this promise is to be accomplished is answered by Jer 23:5 and Jer 23:6. The substance of these verses is indeed introduced by the phrase: behold, days come, as something new and important, but not as something not to happen till after the things foretold in Jer 23:4. According to Jeremiah’s usage throughout, that phrase does not indicate any progress in time as compared with what precedes, but draws attention to the weightiness of what is to be announced. There is also a suggestion of “the contrast between the hope and the existing condition of affairs, which does not itself justify that hope. However gloomy the present is, yet there is a time coming” (Hgstb.). The promise: I make to arise (raise up) to David a righteous branch, rests upon the promise, 2Sa 7:12; 1Ch 17:12: I raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons-which the Lord will hereafter fulfil to David. Graf tries to show by many, but not tenable arguments, that has here a collective force. That he is wrong, we may see from the passages Zec 3:8 and Zec 6:12, where the same “branch” foretold by Jeremiah is called the man whose name is ; and even without this we may discover the same from the context of the present passage, both from “He shall reign as king,” and still more from: they shall call his name Jahveh Tsidkenu . Neither of these sayings can be spoken of a series of kings. Besides, we have the passages Jer 30:9 and Eze 34:23., Eze 37:24, where the servant to be raised up to David by Jahveh is called “my servant David.” Although then has a collective force when it means a plant of the field, it by no means follows that “it has always a collective force” in its transferred spiritual signification. And the passage, Jer 33:17, where the promise is explained by: David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of Israel (cf. Jer 33:21), does not prove that the branch of David is a collective grouping together of all David’s future posterity, but only that this one branch of David shall possess the throne for ever, and not, like mortal men, for a series of years only; 2Sa 7:16. denotes the Messiah, and this title is formed from , Isa 4:2 (see Del. on this passage). Nor does the mention of shepherds in the plural, Jer 23:4, at all oppose this. An untenable rendering of the sense is: first I will raise up unto you shepherds, then the Messiah; or: better shepherds, inprimis unum, Messiam (Chr. B. Mich.). The two promises are not so to be joined. First we have the raising up of good shepherds, in contrast to the evil shepherds that have destroyed the people; then the promise is further explained to the effect that these good shepherds shall be raised up to David in the “righteous branch,” i.e., in the promised “seed” of his sons. The good shepherds are contrasted with the evil shepherds, but are then summed up in the person of the Messiah, as being comprised therein. The relation of the good shepherds to the righteous branch is not so, that the latter is the most pre-eminent of the former, but that in that one branch of David the people should have given to them all the good shepherds needed for their deliverance. The Messiah does not correspond to the series of David’s earthly posterity that sit upon his throne, in that He too, as second David, will also have a long series of descendants upon His throne; but in that His kingdom, His dominion, lasts for ever. In the parallel passage, Jer 33:15, where the contrast to the evil shepherds is omitted, we therefore hear only of the one branch of David; so in Ezek 34, where only the one good shepherd, the servant of the Lord, David, stands in contrast to the evil shepherds (Jer 23:23). Hence neither must we seek the fulfilment of our prophecy in the elevation of the Maccabees, who were not even of the race of David, nor understand, as Grot., Zerubbabel to be the righteous branch, but the Messiah, as was rightly understood by the Chald. He is in contrast to the then reigning members of the house of David, and as He who will do right and justice in His realm; cf. Jer 22:15, where the same is said of Josiah as contrasted with his ungodly son Jehoiakim. is subjoined to to bespeak His rule as kingship in the fullest sense of the word. Regnabit rex , i.e., magnifice regnabit, ut non tantum appareant aliquae reliquiae pristinae dignitatis, sed ut rex floreat et vigeat et obtineat perfectionem, qualis fuit sub Davide et Salomone ac multo praestantior (Calv.). , deal prudently, rule wisely, as in Jer 3:15, not: be fortunate, prosperous. Here the context demands the former rendering, the only one justified by usage, since the doing of right and justice is mentioned as the fruit and result of the . These words, too, point back to David, of whom it is in 2Sa 8:15 said, that he as king did right and justice to all his people.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He confirms the promise, for he would give them faithful and true pastors, who would perform their office as it behoved them; for it would not be enough that the sheep should be restored to their folds, except they were fed. We indeed know that a sheep is a silly animal, and therefore has need of a shepherd to rule and guide it. God then intimates by these words, that after he had collected his flock into the fold it would be the object of his constant care; for he would appoint pastors, who would discharge their office in a far different way from wolves and sacrilegious robbers. He then adds a promise as to their security, which we shall consider tomorrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) I will set up shepherds . . .The words imply, in one sense, a return to the theocracy, the breaking off the hereditary succession of the house of David, and the giving of power to those who, like Ezra and Nehemiah, and, later on in history, the Maccabees, were called to rule because they had the capacity for ruling well. The plural is noticeable, as in Jer. 3:15, as not limiting the prophecy to the Christ who is yet the chief Shepherd (1Pe. 5:4). In the verb for set up there is an allusive reference to the names of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, into both of which it entered. Jehovah would raise up shepherds, but not such as they had proved themselves to be.
Neither shall they be lacking.i.e., the flock would be so cared for that not one sheep should be lost. Care extending even to every individual member was the true ideal of the Shepherds work (Joh. 10:3; Joh. 17:12), and therefore of the rulers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. I will set up shepherds Such men as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah: but the higher fulfilment of this prophetic promise is reserved for Messianic times.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 23:4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
Ver. 4. And I will set up shepherds over them. ] “Pastors after mine own heart,” such as were Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jehoshua the high priest, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, &c. Christian princes and pastors under the gospel, but especially Christ the “chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,” who is therefore here promised, Jer 23:5-6 for the comfort of God’s elect, who might well be troubled at that former dreadful denunciation. Jer 22:29-30
And they shall fear no more.
Neither shall they be lacking.
a Bernard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I: Jer 3:14, Jer 3:15, Jer 33:26, Psa 78:70-72, Isa 11:11, Eze 34:23-31, Hos 3:3-5, Mic 5:2, Mic 5:4, Mic 5:5, Mic 7:14, Joh 21:15-17, Act 20:28, Act 20:29, 1Pe 5:1-4
neither: Num 31:49, Joh 6:39, Joh 6:40, Joh 10:27-30, Joh 17:12, Joh 18:9, 1Pe 1:5
Reciprocal: Num 27:16 – set a man 2Sa 7:7 – feed 1Ch 17:6 – feed Psa 23:1 – my Isa 54:14 – for thou Jer 46:27 – I will save Eze 34:13 – I will bring Zep 3:13 – they Mat 2:6 – rule Luk 12:42 – to give
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 23:4. The imagery or line of illus-trations of a shepherd and his flock is still used. The shepherds of this prediction were such teachers as Ezra arid Nehemiah and the good feeding of those men is recorded in Neh 8:1-9.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Lord also promised to raise up shepherds (leaders) for His people, in the great future restoration, who would care for them properly (cf. Jer 3:15). The Israelites would finally no longer feel fearful or terrified, and none of them would be missing from the land.