John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 3. [There is] a voice of the howling of the shepherds , etc.] Which may be understood either of the civil rulers among the Jews, who now lose their honour and their riches; and so the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret it of kings; or of the ecclesiastical rulers, the elders of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees: for their glory is spoiled ; their power and authority; their riches and wealth; their places of honour and profit; their offices, posts, and employments, whether in civil or religious matters, are taken from them, and they are deprived of them: a voice of the roaring of young lions ; of princes, comparable to them for their power, tyranny, and cruelty: the Targum is, “their roaring is as the roaring of young lions:” for the pride of Jordan is spoiled ; a place where lions and their young ones resorted, as Jarchi observes; (see Gill on “ Jeremiah 49:19”). Jordan is here put for the whole land of Judea now wasted, and so its pride and glory gone; as if the waters of Jordan were dried up, the pride and glory of that, and which it showed when its waters swelled and overflowed; hence called by Pliny “ambitiosus amnis”, a haughty and ambitious swelling river.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-3 - In figurative expressions, that destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, is foretold, which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied plainly and expressly. How can the fi trees stand, if the cedars fall? The falls of the wise and good int sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarm to those every way their inferiors. It is sad with a people, when thos who should be as shepherds to them, are as young lions. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks; and when the river overflowed the banks, the lions came up from them roaring. Thus the doom of Jerusale may alarm other churches.
Original Hebrew קול6963 יללת3215 הרעים7462 כי3588 שׁדדה7703 אדרתם155 קול6963 שׁאגת7581 כפירים3715 כי3588 שׁדד7703 גאון1347 הירדן׃3383
