The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
The diseased have ye not strengthened - rather, those weak from the effects of 'disease,' as strengthened"
(i:e., with due nourishment) requires (Grotius).
Neither have ye bound up that which was broken - i:e., the fractures from wounds inflicted by the wolf.
Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away. If anyone be bound to "bring again an enemy's ox or ass" that "is going astray" (Exodus 23:4), much more is the shepherd bound to bring back again a straying sheep of the Lord's fold. Those "driven away" by the enemy into foreign lands through God's judgments are meant (Jeremiah 23:3). A spiritual reformation of the state by the rulers would have turned away God's wrath, and "brought again" the exiles. The rulers are censured as chiefly guilty (though the people, too, were guilty), because they, who ought to have been foremost in checking the evil, promoted it.
Neither have ye sought that which was lost. Contrast the love of the good Shepherd, who went into the wilderness after that one of the 100 sheep which was lost, and never gave up until He found it (Luke 15:4).
But with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them - (Exodus 1:13-14, "The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage"). With an Egyptian bondage these false shepherds ruled the sheep. The very thing forbidden by the law they did (Leviticus 25:43; cf. 1 Peter 5:3).