Jeremiah 6:3

Jer 6:3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

Ver. 3. The shepherds.] See on Jer 6:2.

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.

She shall be so destroyed; that the sheep may be fed in her.

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

shepherds--hostile leaders with their armies (Jer 1:15; Jer 4:17; Jer 49:20; Jer 50:45).

feed--They shall consume each one all that is near him; literally, "his hand," that is, the place which he occupies (Num 2:17; see on Isa 56:5).

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 3. The shepherds with their flocks] The chiefs and their battalions. The invading army is about to spoil and waste all the fertile fields round about the city, while engaged in the siege.

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

But he afterwards adds, Come shall shepherds, etc.; that is, there is no ground for the Jews to deceive themselves, because God has hitherto spared them, and restrained the assaults of enemies; for now shall come shepherds. He keeps to the same metaphor; “come, “he says, “shall shepherds, “together with their flocks; that is, come shall leaders of armies with their forces. But I have already reminded you, that the Prophet here has a regard to the city where he had been born, and adopts a pastoral language. Come then shall shepherds with their flocks; fix shall they their tents, and feed shall each in his place, he means that the whole of Jerusalem would be so much in the power of enemies, that each one would freely choose his own part or his own portion; for when there is any fear, then the shepherds gather their flocks, that they may assist one another; but when everything is in their own power, they move here and there as they please. This free acting then intimates, that the Jews would have no strength, and would be helped by no aid; but that the shepherds would surround the whole city and besiege it: every one, he says, would be in his own place. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(3) Shall come unto her.—Better, Unto it (sc., the pasture) shall come shepherds with their flocks—i.e., the leaders and the armies of the invaders. The other verbs are in the past tense, the future being seen, as it were realised, They have pitched, they have pastured.

Every one in his place.—Literally, each on his hand, or perhaps, “they shall feed, each his hand,” i.e., shall let it rove in plunder at will by the side of his own tent. The work of plunder was to go on everywhere. The imagery is drawn from the attack of a nomadic tribe on a richly-cultivated plain.

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

3. For shepherds in the sense of leaders, rulers cp. chs. Jer_2:8, Jer_3:15.

every one in his place] The Heb. is lit. each his hand. They shall not need to encroach upon one another, finding abundance in their own portion.

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.

The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her,.... Kings and their armies, as the Targum paraphrases it; kings and generals are compared to shepherds, and their armies to flocks, who are under their command and direction; here they design Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, with his generals and armies, who should come up against Jerusalem, as to a good pasture:

they shall pitch their tents against her round about; their military tents, in allusion to pastoral ones. The phrase is expressive of the Chaldean army surrounding and besieging Jerusalem:

they shall feed everyone in his place; where he is ordered and fixed by his head general: or, "everyone shall feed his hand" (p): the sheep of his hand; see Psa 95:7, "them that are under his hand", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; who are committed to his care and charge. The meaning is, he shall direct the company or companies of soldiers under him, where to be, and what part to take in the siege; or "with his hand", as the Septuagint, with the skilfulness of his hands, Psa 78:72, or with might and power; or "at his hand", as the Arabic version; what is at hand, what is nearest to him; or according to his will and pleasure. The Targum is,

"everyone shall help his neighbour.''

The sense, according to Kimchi, is, one king or general shall lay siege against a city, or against cities, and so another, until they have consumed and subdued the whole land.

(p) "paverunt unusquisque manum suam", Montanus; "eos qui sub manu sua sunt", V. L.

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

To it shall come “shepherds with their flocks:”

They have pitched upon it “their tents round about:”

They have pastured each his hand, “i. e., side.”

The pasture is so abundant that each feeds his flock, i. e., plunders Jerusalem, at the side of his own tent.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shepherds. So captains are styled, because they feed and govern soldiers. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her: the prophet here proceeds in his metaphor, and possibly the rather, because he chooseth to speak in the style of his own education, which may also give some countenance to the supplement of pasture or land in the former verse instead of woman: the meaning is, the Chaldean princes, with their armies, as so many flocks, shall come into this pleasant land; see Jer 12:10; in which expression there is something of a scoff, as Jer 4:16,17.

They shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall so place their warlike tents, as to form a siege to begirt her round, Jer 1:15; Eze 4:2.

Every one in his place, Heb. hand, i.e. near hand, or beside or near one another; thus 2Ch 21:16; Job 1:14; thus hand is taken for place; i.e. each one in his quarter or station, not a man but shall do his part, and shall be skilful and powerful to destroy wherever he comes: it intimates also that every thing shall be so much at the enemy’s own disposal, that they shall be able to choose their own quarters; they shall place their army in wings, and troops, and regiments, as they see good, to their best advantage, to be helpful one unto another, as shepherds are wont to do their flocks; or, they shall fight in several parties, and each destroy his part assigned him through the whole country, and they shall join as it were in one body against Jerusalem.

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

3. The shepherds… shall come — The coming destruction is set forth under the familiar figure of shepherds with their flocks, who eat up the substance of the land. The figure of shepherds is a common one for princes and people.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The shepherds with their flocks, etc.; rather, To her came shepherds with their flocks; they have pitched their tents round about her; they have pastured each at his side. The best commentary on the last clause is furnished by Num_22:4, "Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The shepherds - The Chaldean princes, with their armies, as so many flocks, shall come into this pleasant land. In his place - Each one in his quarter or station.

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

Shepherds and their flocks Figurative of kings and their armies.

they feed bare Heb. רעו, they eat.

his place Heb. ידו [lit. his hand.] His place around him.

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.