Zechariah 11:3 [There is] a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
Ver. 3. There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds] Potentes potenter torquebuntur. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day," Isaiah 2:17. The shepherds were grown foolish, Zechariah 11:15, idol shepherds, Zechariah 11:17, they cared for no other instruments but forcipes et mulctram, the shears and the milk pail; they were become "greedy dogs, which could never have enough," Isaiah 56:11 (they were sick of the bulimy, or appetitus caninus a greedy dog), yea, they were so many young lions, ramping and ravening, as it is here and Ezekiel 19:2,3. Both princes and priests were turned tyrants, and instead of feeding the people in the integrity of their hearts, and guiding them with the skilfulness of their hands, Psalms 78:72, preyed upon them, and "plucked the skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones," Micah 3:2 .
For the pride of Jordan is spoiled] The swelling of Jordan dried up by the Romans, as Jerome interprets it; or, the proud and stately palaces and possessions that the great ones had gotten upon the banks of Jordan for fruitfulness and pleasance, as a Lapide; or the numerous and proud nation of the Jews likened to the yearly overflowing of Jordan, whereof see Jos 3:15 Jeremiah 49:19, as Diodati.