Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: [but] ye feed not the flock.
Ver. 3. Ye eat the fat.] Ecce, lac et lanam recipitis. This ye might do, if in measure, for the workman is worthy of his wages, see 1Co 9:7 but ye gorge yourselves with the best of the best. Et si ventri bene, si lateri, as Epicurus in Horace, If the belly may be filled, the back fitted, that is all you take care for. In parabola ovis capras quaeritis, et vestrum maxime compendium spectatis; ye are all for your own ends, nourishing your hearts as in a day of slaughter, or of good cheer. Jam 5:5
Ye kill them that are fed.] Heb., Ye sacrifice them; so ye pretend, but mind your own fat paunches. See Proverbs 7:14 .
But ye feed not the flock.] As being falsi et ficti imo picti pastores, mock shepherds.