This twenty years [have] I [been] with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.
Ver. 38. The rams of thy flock have I not eaten.] A lively picture of a careful pastor. 2Co 11:9 He fats not himself, but feeds the flock; he seeks not theirs, neither fleece nor flesh, but them and their welfare. He takes not to him "the instruments of a foolish shepherd"; Zec 11:15 that is, forcipes et mulctram, that he may carry away lac et lanam; but feeds the flock of God, and takes care of the cure, as Peter bids; "not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind," &c. 1Pe 5:2 About the year of Christ 1260, the people and clergy of England, the Pope's ass, as it was called, opposed themselves to the legate's exactions. And when Rustandus, the legate, alleged that all churches were the Pope's, Leonard, a learned man of those times, answered, Tuitione, non fruitione; defensione, non dissipatione. a
a Jac. Revius, De Vitis Pontif., p. 178.