My anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the leaders: for the LORD of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them as his royal horse in the battle.
Read Chapter 10
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Goats; the leaders of the people, Jeremias l. 8. (Calmet)
Vir gregis ipse caper. (Virgil, Ec. vii.)
Jason died in exile, Lysimachus was slain in the temple, Alcimus perished miserably, and Menelaus was hurled among ashes, 2 Machabees v. 5., and iv. 39., and xiii. 4., and 1 Machabees ix. 54.
Battle. The apostates have suffered: God will not abandon his flock, but raises up Mathathias
Observe, you who are our beloved sons, how merciful yet righteous the Lord our God is, how gracious and kind to humankind. And yet most certainly “he will not acquit the guilty,” though he welcomes returning sinners and revives them, leaving no room for suspicion to such as wish to judge sternly and to reject offenders entirely, and to refuse to grant them exhortations which might bring them to repentance. In contradiction to such, God by Isaiah says to the bishops, “Comfort you, comfort you my people, you priests; speak comfortably to Jerusalem.” It therefore behooves you, upon hearing those words of his, to encourage those who have offended, and lead them to repentance, and afford them hope, and not vainly to suppose that you shall be partakers of their offenses on account of such your love to them. Receive the penitent with alacrity and rejoice over them, and with mercy and bowels of compassion judge the sinners. For if a person was walking by the side of a river and ready to stumbl...
