Jeremiah 10:21

21 For the shepherds have become stupid, they do not seek Yahweh. {Therefore} they do not have insight, and all of their flock are scattered.

Jeremiah 10:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 10:21

For the pastors are become brutish
The "kings" of Judah, so the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, as Jehoiakim and Zedekiah; though it need not be restrained to these only, but may include all inferior civil magistrates, and even all ecclesiastical rulers, who were the shepherds of the people; but these being like the brute beasts, and without understanding of civil and religious things, and not knowing how to govern the people either in a political or ecclesiastical way, were the cause of their ruin. And have not sought the Lord;
this is an instance of their brutishness and stupidity, and opens the source of all their mistakes and misfortunes; they did not seek the Lord for counsel, by whom kings reign well, and princes decree justice; nor doctrine from the Lord, as the Targum, as the priests and prophets should have done, in order to instruct the people, and feed them with knowledge and understanding; nor did either of them seek the glory of God in what they did, but their own interest, worldly advantage, or applause: therefore they shall not prosper;
in their kingdom, and in the several offices and stations in which they were. Some render the words, "therefore they do not act prudently" ^F2; not consulting the Lord, nor warning the people, nor giving them notice of approaching danger: and all their flocks shall be scattered;
the people of the Jews that were under their government, civil or ecclesiastical, should be dispersed in several nations, and especially in Chaldee; wherefore it follows:

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (wlykvh al) "non egerunt prudenter", Vatablus, Tigurine version; "non intellexerunt", Pagninus, Montanus.

Jeremiah 10:21 In-Context

19 Woe to me, because of my wound. My wound [is] incurable. But I said, "Surely this [is my] sickness, and I must bear it."

20 My tent is devastated, and all my tent cords are torn. My children have gone out [from] me, and they are not. There is no [one who] pitches my tent again, or [one who] puts up my tent curtains.

21 For the shepherds have become stupid, they do not seek Yahweh. {Therefore} they do not have insight, and all of their flock are scattered.

22 Listen, news: Look, [it is] coming, a great roar from [the] land of [the] north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.

23 I know, [O] Yahweh, that to the human [is] not his [own] way, nor to a person [is the] walking and the directing of his [own] step.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "Unto thus"