Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
Then shall the lambs feed after their manner - kªdaabªraam (H1699); literally, according to their own word, i:e., at will. Otherwise, as in their own pasture (Gesenius); so the Hebrew, in Micah 2:12, hadaabªrow (H1699), 'in the midst of their fold,' or else pasture. The lambs of the Scenite (tent-dwellers, Jeremiah 35:7). Arab shepherds in the neighbourhood shall roam at large, the whole of Judea being so desolate as to become a vast pasturage.
And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat - the deserted lands of the rich (Psalms 22:29, "All they that be fat"), then gone into captivity, "strangers," i:e., nomadic tribes, shall make their flocks to feed on. Figuratively, "the lambs" are the pious; "the fat ones," the impious. So tender disciples of Jesus Christ (John 21:15) are called "lambs," being meek, harmless, poor, and persecuted. Compare Ezekiel 39:18, where the fatlings are the rich and great (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). The "strangers" are in this view the "other sheep not of" the Jewish "fold" (John 10:16), the Gentiles whom Jesus Christ shall "bring" to be partakers of the rich privileges (Romans 11:17) which the Jews, the fat ones, fell from (Ezekiel 34:16, "I will destroy the fat and the strong"). Thus "after their (own) manner" will express that the Christian Church should worship God in freedom, released from legal bondage (John 4:23; Galatians 5:1).