REJECTION OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD 415
The interpretation of this symbolical act is given by God Himself: " For I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which sJiall not visit (or observe] or care for ) that which is cut off (ex perishing }, neither shall he seek those that be scattered?- nor heal that which is broken ; neitJier shall he feed that which is sound (lit., standethl i.e., the strong), but he sJiall eat the flesh of the fat, and shall tear their hoofs in pieces"
The heartlessness and cruelty of this evil shepherd is strikingly described first in a negative, and then in a positive, manner. Not only will he be utterly indifferent alike to the needs of those who are ready to perish as to those who are still sound, but he will positively devour the flock. He will even " tear their hoofs in pieces," not " by driving them along rough and stony roads," as Ewald and others explain, but " so that when he consumes the sheep he even splits or tears in pieces the claws to seize upon and swallow the last morsel of flesh or fat." 2
And the most solemn fact in this forecast is that God says, " / will raise up " such a shepherd in the land. Yes, He will raise him up in the same sense as He raised up the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Romans, i.e., as His scourge upon a godless generation.
And the readiness of the " sheep of slaughter " to follow such a shepherd will be but part of the punishment for their rejection of the Good Shepherd.
But who is meant by this foolish or wicked shepherd ?
Jewish commentators interpret it of Herod ; 3 some Christian interpreters, like Hengstenberg, apply it to " all the evil native Jewish rulers collectively," who, subsequent
1 The word is tyjn, hanaar, and means a youth or young man (rendered in the A. V. "the young one "), but it is never used of the young of animals.
Moreover, the mention of the young of the flock would not be suitable here, since there would be no need to seek them, "for lambs which feed beside their mothers do not generally go astray."
The R.V. and modern scholars generally have adopted the explanation of Gesenius, that na ar is an abstract substantive meaning " scattering," and used here for the concrete " that which is scattered."
2 Keil.
- So, e.g., R. Abraham of Toledo, quoted by Kimchi.
