Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
Ver. 4. Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of slaughter] So lately pulled out of the jaws of those lions, Zec 11:3 cf. Amos 3:12, and yet destined to destruction by the Romans, those Raptores Orbis robbers of the world, (their former preservation being but a reservation to future mischief), for their desperate obstinace and incorrigibility.
Feed them] Saith God to the prophets; for their ordinary shepherds have cast off all care of their good. Tell them what evil will betide them unless they repent; forewarn them "to flee from the wrath to come," Matthew 3:7; to take course that they may "escape all these things that shall come to pass," Luke 21:36. Oh the goodness of God to a nation so shamelessly, so lawlessly wicked! Besides himself, the Shepherd of lsrael, that led Joseph like a flock, Psalms 80:1, and neglected no good office of seeking and feeding them, of handling and healing them, of washing them and watching over them, &c., how careful was he ever to raise them up "seven shepherds, and eight principal men," Micah 5:5, till at length he sent the man Christ Jesus, who is the chief of ten thousand, the "chief Shepherd," as St Peter calls him, 1 Peter 5:4, that one and only Shepherd, as Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12:11, that great Shepherd of the sheep, as Paul, Hebrews 13:20, who came to look up the lost sheep of the house of Israel, whom (to move compassion and affection) he here calleth the sheep of slaughter, until the time prefixed for their total dispersion, by reason of their ingratitude.