Ezekiel 34:18

Eze 34:18 [Seemeth it] a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

Ver. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you.] Extenuant hypocritae suam culpam honesto titulo. {a} Hypocrites make the best and the least of their sins, which good men acknowledge with aggravation; but the works of the flesh are manifest. And here we have a lively picture of the Popish clergy, who eat up the best, and tread down the rest, et pro salutaribus aquis suam salivam hominibus obtrudunt, and for wholesome, obtrude brackish waters upon men to quench their thirst,

{a} Oecolamp.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By good pasture and deep waters is meant the pure word of God and the administration of justice, which they did not distribute to the poor till they had corrupted it.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Not content with appropriating to their own use the goods of others, they from mere wantonness spoiled what they did not use, so as to be of no use to the owners.

deep waters--that is, "limpid," as deep waters are generally clear. GROTIUS explains the image as referring to the usuries with which the rich ground the poor (Eze 22:12; Isa 24:2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Have eaten up the good pasture] Arrogate to yourselves all the promises of God, and will hardly permit the simple believer to claim or possess any token of God's favour.

Ye must foul the residue with your feet?] Ye abuse God's mercies; you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more, on which the poor would have been glad to feed. There are some who would rather give food to their sporting dogs than to the poor around them, who are ready to starve, and who would be glad of the crumbs that fall from the table of those masters!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Tread down . . . foul the residue.—The charge against them is that they not only first supplied and took care of themselves, but with careless insolence destroyed what should have been for others.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. The words are addressed to the rams and he-goats—the magnates and ruling classes.

deep waters] clear (lit. settled) waters, cf. Eze_32:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet,.... They are forced to do it, not being able to come at any thing else; being as sheep without a shepherd, or worse:

and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet; which, as it cannot be agreeable and relishing, so neither wholesome; as the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees; the traditions of the elders; the false doctrines of false teachers, whose words eat as do a canker. The Targum of the whole verse is,

"and my people eat the residue of the food of your ministers, and drink the residue of the drink of your ministers.''

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God awakens them by this interrogatory to think first, and then speak what this is. When you are full fed, and others hungry and ready to starve, who might live on that you leave if you did not spoil it, do you think such killing is no crime? Is it not a very great cruelty, and a most barbarous inhumanity? You great ones, who have much more than others, partly by the bounty of the Lord of the sheep, and partly by your injustice and rapine, you eat the fat and sweet, and what you cannot eat you waste and spoil; and what would you say, if your proud, fat, and spiteful servants in your houses should do so to their weaker, leaner, and modester servants?

The deep waters; which are clear to the eye and pleasant, which are sweet to their palate, which are wholesome to the drinker.

Ye must foul the residue with your feet; in spite as much as wantonness you stamp in them, raise all the mud from the bottom, that makes the waters unfit to be drunk: is this a trivial thing thus to starve and choke those you should feed and refresh? Such hath been the carriage of you rich, powerful, ruling, and governing part of my people, who have been forced either to live on what you made unwholesome and noxious, or to starve at home, or seek somewhat abroad; this hath destroyed many and dispersed more, but I will not always wink at and bear this.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But ye must tread down - You great ones, eat the fat, and sweet; and what you cannot eat, you waste and spoil. The deep waters - Which are sufficient for all.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Is it little for you that the strongest among you graze on the good pasture? If only you would not [also] tread the residues with your feet, and would let the rest of My flock eat them! But even the residue of your pasture you tread with your feet! And is it not enough for you that you drink the clear water, that you must tread the remainder with your feet?

the clear water [Heb. וּמִשְּׁקַע מַיִם,] lit. sunken water, the clear water, whose mud sank. It was not made murky with [the movement of] the feet. The symbolic meaning is as stated by the Targum: Is it little for you that [you] feed yourself the best food, and your attendants must eat the residue of your food? And [that] you drink the best, and your attendants must drink the residue?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.