And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
The verse is part of a sentence of doom clearly pronounced against the nation, whose awful import the multitudes who heard could scarcely understand. The doom it declares is likened to draining a cup filled with the wine of divine wrath, to be drunk first by Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and the kings thereof, and then by Pharaoh king of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and many other nations of earth, until God's purpose should have been fulfilled.
The shepherds and the principal of the flock are unfaithful ministers and pastors who mislead, destroy and scatter God's sheep. They sacrificed truth and promised peace where there is none, leading people to trust falsehood. They did this to gain favor, leading people to rest in a refuge of falsehood by healing the hurt only slightly.
God will visit the evil of their doings upon them, so they will face the ruin their teaching helped bring about. They shall have no way to flee, nor shall the principal of the flock escape judgment. When their days for slaughter and dispersions are accomplished, they will howl and cry and wallow in ashes.
The verse is part of a sentence of doom clearly pronounced against the nation, whose awful import the multitudes who heard could scarcely understand. The doom it declares is likened to draining a cup filled with the wine of divine wrath, to be drunk first by Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and the kings thereof, and then by Pharaoh king of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and many other nations of earth, until God's purpose should have been fulfilled.
The shepherds and the principal of the flock are unfaithful ministers and pastors who mislead, destroy and scatter God's sheep. They sacrificed truth and promised peace where there is none, leading people to trust falsehood. They did this to gain favor, leading people to rest in a refuge of falsehood by healing the hurt only slightly.
God will visit the evil of their doings upon them, so they will face the ruin their teaching helped bring about. They shall have no way to flee, nor shall the principal of the flock escape judgment. When their days for slaughter and dispersions are accomplished, they will howl and cry and wallow in ashes.