The pastors. — The “shepherds,” used, as in Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 3:15, and elsewhere, of rulers generally, rather than of priests as such.
Therefore they shall not prosper. — Better, therefore they have not done wisely. This is the primary meaning of the word (that of prosperity, as the result of prudence, the secondary), and is adopted by the LXX., Vulg., and most other versions.
All their flocks. — Literally, all their pasture, the place, or the act, of pasturing, taken practically for the sheep that fed on it.