Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my portion; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
He explains by another comparison what we have just observed; he calls those pastors or shepherds whom he had before compared to wild beasts; for by saying, “Come ye, all the wild beasts of the wood,” he doubtless meant the same as those of whom he now speaks; and yet he calls them pastors.
The people of the Jews are here marked for ruin. I. God is here brought in falling out with them and leaving them desolate; and they could never have been undone if they had not provoked God to desert them.
Commenting on Jeremiah 12:7-13
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard,.... This is a metaphor which is often used of the people of Israel and Judah; see Psa 80:8, the pastors that destroyed them are not their own governors, civil or religious, but Heathen princes, Nebuchadnezzar and his generals. So the Targum paraphrases it, "many kings slay my people;'' so Kimchi and Ben Melech.