“You eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with the wool. You kill the fatlings. But you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the diseased, nor have you healed those who are sick, nor have you bound up what is broken, nor have you restored the ones who were driven away, nor have you sought that which was lost. But you have lorded it over them with force and with rigour.”
The charge is expanded on, a failure to look after the sheep in their many needs, while themselves obtaining as much advantage from them as they could. They were squeezing the flock dry but they gave them little in return. The general approach demonstrates that more than just past kings were in mind.
Thus they overlooked the basic necessities of those under their care. They did not help the weak, they did not restore those who were failing, they did not go after any who strayed or were snatched away. They left them to themselves except for when they wanted to benefit from them. And then they pursued their object diligently and with vigour.
It is a sad thing when pastors and preachers have a high opinion of themselves, and even sadder when their main aim is their own good and their own advancement rather than genuine concern for their people.