Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.
Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds - the civil rulers of Israel and Judah, who abetted idolatry.
And I punished - literally, 'visited upon.' The same word, 'visited' х paaqad (H6485)], without the 'upon,' is presently after used in a good sense to heighten the contrast.
The goats - he-goats. As "shepherds" described what they ought to have been, so 'he-goats' describes what they were, the emblem of headstrong wantonness and offensive lust (margin, Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 34:17; Daniel 8:5; Matthew 25:33). The he-goats head the flock. They who are first in crime will be first in punishment.
For the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah - in mercy (Luke 1:68).
And hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. In Zechariah 9:13 they were represented under the image of bows and arrows, here under that of their commander-in-chief Yahweh's battle-horse (Song of Solomon 1:9). God can make His people, timid though they be as sheep, courageous as the charger. The general rode on the most beautiful and richly caparisoned, and had his horse tended with the greatest care. Yahweh might cast off the Jews for their vileness, but He regards His election or adoption of them; whence He calls them here "His flock," and therefore saves them.