Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
Ver. 17. That have the rule over you] Gr. That are your leaders or captains. But now, as once in Alcibiades' army, most will be leaders, few learners. See Trapp on " Heb 13:7 "
And submit yourselves] Obey their doctrine, submit to their discipline.
As they that must give an account] These are fulmina, non verba, as Erasmus saith of a like place, Ezekiel 3:18; not words, but thunderbolts. Chrysostom (though he usually preached every day, and so excellently that it grew to a proverb, Better the sun shine not than that Chrysostom preach not, yet he) was exceedingly affected and affrighted with this dreadful passage: being ready to say with Job, "What shall I do, when God riseth up? and when he calleth to reckoning, what shall I answer?" Job 31:14 .