My people hath been lost sheep... — We note as interesting the dominance of this imagery here as in Isaiah 53:6; Ezekiel 34:5. The “shepherds” are, as ever, the kings and civil rulers of the people. In the “mountains” and “hills” we see partly the natural surroundings of the imagery, partly a special reference to the idolatrous worship of the high places (Jeremiah 3:2; Jeremiah 3:6). The Hebrew text as it stands gives, they have led them on seducing mountains, i.e., the “high places” which had so strange a fascination for them. The Authorised version follows the marginal reading of the Hebrew. The “forgotten resting place,” or, perhaps, the fold, is, as in Jeremiah 50:7, the “habitation of justice,” the true pasturage, the righteousness which is found in fellowship with Jehovah Himself.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 50:6
Jeremiah 50:6
6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.c