While plain in its main teaching, this chapter is obscure in many of its details. Its theme is grace and judgment. It opens with a vision of judgment sweeping over the land and making it desolate (verse 1-3). God shows to the prophet that the promises of the preceding chapter will not be realized without further uprisings of evil (cf. 10:2, 3a). In verses 4:17 the prophet is bidden to impersonate first a good shepherd, and when he was rejected and despised a worthless shepherd, under whom the flock will suffer many sorrow. The section is a vivid foreshadowing of the coming of Christ (verses 12, 13; cf. Mt. 26:14, 15; 27:9, 10).
- Verse 7. The good shepherd’s ‘two staffs’ (cf. ‘rod’ and ‘staff’ in Ps. 23:4) were named ‘Grace’ and ‘Union’, indicating that He came in grace to bind the flock into one. How far is this a picture of Christ? Cf. Jn. 1:14; 17:20-22.
- How is the lot of those who deliberately refuse the good described? Cf. Mt. 23:37, 38; 2 Thes. 2:8.
- Verses 7, 11. ‘Traffickers in the sheep’: ‘poor of the flock’ (AV) fits the context better.
- Verse 12. ‘Thirty shekels of silver’: the price of an injured slave (Ex. 21:32). Cf. Mt. 26:15; 27:9
