Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith Jehovah.
God turns from Judah's failed kings to her leaders as a whole, and calls them shepherds over sheep that belong to Him. The woe falls on the men who ruined the flock, and the rest of the chapter shows what God will do next.
The Hebrew word behind "shepherds" simply means to feed. That makes the charge sharper: their title named the duty they dropped. The New Testament uses the same picture for Christ and for those who care for His people.
In the Old Testament the word is raah, "to feed," and it refers to those who should have cared for God's people. They, like everyone else, had failed. They had destroyed and scattered the sheep. In the New Testament the word is poimen, which is used of Christ Himself as the good Shepherd. The pastor is one of the gifts in the church (Ephesians 4:11). He is gifted to help the saints one by one, to enter into their trials and difficulties, and to bring the word to instruct and comfort them, or to correct and counsel them if needed.
These shepherds were the nation's rulers. Their failure did not stop God's purpose for the people they wrecked.
Our chapter opens with a woe on those guilty kings of Judah. They should have been faithful shepherds to the Lord's flock, watching over them and caring for them as the sheep of His pasture. Instead their wickedness helped to destroy and scatter them (Jer. 23:1-2). But if man is unfaithful, God is faithful. Here He makes known His love and care and purpose for His beloved though guilty people (Jer. 23:3-4).
The verse calls them the sheep of God's own pasture. Anyone who cares for God's people can quietly forget that.
It was and still is of the greatest importance to regard "the flock" as God's. This matters all the more because even excellent souls fall into the habit of forgetting this truth. They assume that the sheep they feed and tend are their own flocks. Such a thought is an unwitting denial of God's rights. It misstates how His sheep stand related to Him. And it produces wrong readings of His word, which harm His servants themselves as well as the saints.
The woe names two actions: destroying and scattering. Commentators set both against what grace does.
The work of the enemy is to scatter and destroy. The work of grace is to save and gather.
The woe also sorts workers into two groups. The verses that follow show which side God stands on.
The scatterers have His frown and not His favour… The gatherers of the true sheep are with Him in their work, for He adds, "I will gather the remnant of My flock." There is one Shepherd and one flock now, as we read in John 10. His sheep follow Him. They know Him; and they know His voice… True servants encourage the sheep to follow our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and not to follow themselves.
The chapters before this one have been dark reading. Chapter 23 does not stop at the verdict on these men.
So in Jeremiah 23 we have their general and solemn judgment, but not without the vision of sovereign mercy when the Son of David shall arise. How refreshing to read such words after the moral horrors we have had before us!
This charge is not only history. Writers ask whether the same failure marks the care of God's people since.
Ezekiel, the prophet of the exile, brought the same message to the shepherds of Israel. They did not strengthen the weak sheep. They did not heal the sick. They did not bind up what was broken. They did not bring back those who had been driven away. They ruled with harshness, and the sheep were scattered. Times and places differ, but has the same thing not happened again and again all through the Church's history, even at times within the assemblies? Harshness and severity have caused scattering. Sheep end up sick, wounded, and wandering when shepherds fail to give proper care and think only of "the fat and the strong."
- Ownership. They are the sheep of His pasture; treating God's people as your own flock denies His rights over them.
- Duty. The very word for shepherd means "to feed" — these men held the title while doing the opposite.
- Verdict. Scattering earns God's frown. Gathering puts a worker on His side, because scattering is the enemy's work and gathering is the work of grace.
- Cause. Harshness and neglect leave sheep sick, wounded and wandering. So does caring only for the strong — in Judah and since.
- Mercy. The woe opens a chapter that ends in promise. God gathers the remnant Himself and raises up the Son of David — the Shepherd these men never were.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds 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 Jehovah.
Jeremiah 23 turns from Judah's failing kings to the God whose people they had ruined. They scattered His flock and never attended to it, so now He will attend to them.
Commentators tie the title to the men who held the throne.
Jeremiah 23 pronounces a woe upon the pastors in general. By the pastors, the prophet means the kings who ought to have provided protection and food for the people. But they scattered and destroyed the sheep of Jehovah's flock. However, He would raise up a competent Ruler and Shepherd-King for His sheep.
The same charge appears later through Ezekiel, and one writer notes how wide the circle of guilt runs.
The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the terrible condition of the flock. They were utterly selfish. They did not care for the sheep of His pasture. They did not fear God, and they had no heart for God's people. The flock was scattered and ruined.
Twice in this verse the Lord says my — my people, my flock. That small word is the heart of the offence. The same danger faces anyone who cares for God's people today.
It was and is of the greatest importance to regard "the flock" as God's. This matters all the more, because even excellent souls usually forget this truth. They assume that the sheep they feed and tend are their own flocks. Such a thought reveals an unintended denial of God's rights. It falsifies the relation of His sheep. And it produces wrong interpretation of His word, which hurts His servants themselves as well as the saints.
The word behind "shepherd" is a job description. The New Testament gives the same title to Christ.
In the Old Testament the word is raah, "to feed," and refers to those who should have helped God's people. They, as all others, had failed; they had destroyed and scattered the sheep. In the New Testament the word is poimēn, which is applied to Christ Himself as the good Shepherd. The pastor is one of the gifts in the church (Eph. 4:11). He is gifted to help the saints one by one, share in their trials and difficulties, and bring the word to instruct and comfort them.
The verse names two failures: what they did, and what they never did. One writer asks whether the pattern stopped with Judah.
Jeremiah next rebukes the shepherds (23:1). They destroyed and scattered the flock instead of visiting them and caring for them. Ezekiel, the prophet of the captivity, had the same message for the shepherds of Israel (Ezek. 34). They did not strengthen the weak sheep. They did not heal the sick... They ruled over them with harshness and with rigour (Ezek. 34:4), and the sheep were "scattered." Times and places differ. Even so, has not the Church's history seen the same things repeated?
Scattering costs the scatterer, and the cost often shows in this life.
And what a judgment will fall on the false shepherds, who feed themselves and not the flock of God. The Lord will feed them WITH JUDGMENT. How true this is today. Division comes. The power of gathering is gone. The Spirit is grieved. It is no rare sight to see those who have been prominent in scattering reap what they have sown. They are left almost, if not quite, alone in their closing days.
The same writer turns it into questions we can ask ourselves.
Do we seek after the lost sheep today? Do we bring back those who have been driven away? Do we bind up the broken and strengthen the sick? How much scattering there has been, and how little gathering. The flesh scatters. It is the Spirit who gathers. Anyone can scatter, but it takes divine power to do the gathering.
The woe of verses 1-2 is not where the chapter stops.
Our chapter opens with a pronouncement of woe on those guilty kings of Judah. They should have been faithful pastors to Jehovah's flock, heeding and caring for them as the sheep of His pasture. Instead their wickedness helped to destroy and scatter them (Jer. 23:1-2). But if man is unfaithful, God is faithful. Here He makes known His love and care and purpose for His beloved though guilty people (Jer. 23:3-4).
- Ownership. The sheep were never the kings' property. God calls them "my flock," and treating His people as your own denies His rights.
- Neglect. The charge is double: active harm in scattering and driving away, and passive harm in never visiting. The word behind "pastor" means "to feed" — the one thing they would not do.
- Reversal. Because they did not attend to the sheep, God says He will attend to them; the punishment is cut from the shape of the sin.
- Mirror. Commentators apply this beyond Judah. Harshness still scatters. The test is simple: do we seek the lost, bring back the driven away, and strengthen the sick?
- Replacement. Failed shepherds are not the end of the story. God stays faithful to His people and raises up a Ruler and Shepherd-King for His sheep.
And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their pastures; and they shall be fruitful and shall multiply.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I will raise up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, saith Jehovah.
God's answer to the leaders who ruined His flock is not only judgment; He promises shepherds of His own. Two questions follow: who are they, and when does a scattered people ever live in such safety?
Older translations say "pastors" here. One commentator starts with what the word means.
The word "pastors" means "shepherds." Ezekiel received a larger message about these false shepherds, the hired men who did not feed the flock. God will yet gather the scattered remnant of the Lord's flock (not the Church, but the remnant of Israel) out of all countries. They will be fruitful and increase, no longer fearful, dismayed or in want. This prophecy is about the time when the Shepherd of Israel, who is also their King, appears.
Kings were meant to care for the flock. One writer sums up how they did, and names the two opposite works.
Kingship failed completely in the hands of the first man, and so did priesthood. The best of the kings of Israel — David, Solomon and all the rest — broke down. The wicked kings, as we see here, only helped to destroy and scatter the flock of God. The work of the enemy is to scatter and destroy. The work of grace is to save and gather.
Judgment falls on the false shepherds here. But one commentator finds more than judgment in this chapter.
In Jeremiah 23 we have their general and solemn judgment. But it comes with the vision of sovereign mercy, when the Son of David shall arise. How refreshing to read such words among the moral horrors we have had before us!
So when is this promise kept? One commentator answers plainly, and gives a reason for the long delay.
This prophecy has never been fulfilled. When He came, who is to fulfil its every letter as well as its spirit to the full, He did not reign nor prosper, but was cast out from the earth, and exalted in heaven... For the very rejection of the Messiah by the Jews gave occasion to the mighty work of redemption by the blood of the cross... But those times will end. In the meantime God calls the Church of the heavenly places and completes it in glory. Then the Lord will turn the heart of His ancient people, at least of a remnant, to Himself, and will return and reign in glory.
So the safety this verse promises — never afraid, never dismayed — waits for that reign.
Earlier in the same book, God had already promised the shepherds He would give.
It is refreshing and cheering to hear Jeremiah speak of the time when the Lord will give pastors according to His own heart, "who will feed you with knowledge and understanding" (Jer. 3:15)... he foretells the day when the Lord Himself shall recover His scattered people, and "gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock" (Jer. 31:10)... the believer knows this Shepherd now, and receives eternal life from Him before He returns to gather Israel.
One commentator marks the difference between how Christ will shepherd His earthly people and how He shepherds His own now.
To the Jews — had they received Him, He would have been a Shepherd on earth; and even in the millennium He will be the Shepherd of His earthly people... But He is our Shepherd as the One who has died, risen again, and is seated at the right hand of God... So He now shepherds His people from His place on high. That is why He is called the Chief Shepherd. He is away from the sheep, yet He cares for them tenderly, and He provides others to "feed the flock" under His guidance and direction.
- Scattered. Leaders who should have fed the flock destroyed it. Scattering is the enemy's work; gathering is the work of grace.
- Gathered. God promises to gather the scattered remnant of His flock out of every country, to be fruitful and increase again.
- Fed. The shepherds God sets up are pastors according to His own heart. They feed the flock with knowledge and understanding.
- Fearless. The flock is never afraid, never dismayed, and never one sheep missing. Commentators tie that safety to the reign of the Son of David, still future.
- Followed. The Chief Shepherd cares for His people now from heaven. He gives others to feed the flock until the day this verse describes.