The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them that are under his hand.

The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her on every side; they shall feed every one in his place.

Unto her come do shepherds and their droves, They have stricken tents by her round about, They have fed each in his own station.

Keepers of sheep with their flocks will come to her; they will put up their tents round her; everyone will get food in his place.

Shepherds with their flocks come unto her; They pitch their tents against her round about; They feed bare every one what is nigh at hand.

The pastors will come to her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents against her all around. Each one will feed those who are under his hand.

Super eam venient pastores et greges eorum, figent adversus eam tabernecula sua in circuitu; pascent vir ad manum suam (hoc est, quisque ad locum suum).

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.

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.

The shepherds with their flocks (e) shall come to her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her on every side; they shall feed every one in his place.
(e) She will be so destroyed that the sheep may be fed in her.

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 Psalm 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, Psalm 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.

shepherds--hostile leaders with their armies (Jeremiah 1:15; Jeremiah 4:17; Jeremiah 49:20; Jeremiah 50:45).
feed--They shall consume each one all that is near him; literally, "his hand," that is, the place which he occupies (Numbers 2:17; see on Isaiah 56:5).

The destruction comes about by means of shepherds with their flocks, who set up their tents round the city, and depasture each his portion. We need hardly observe that the shepherds and their flocks are a figure for princes, who with their peoples besiege and sack Jerusalem; with this cf. Jeremiah 1:15. The figure does not point to a nomad swarm, or the Scythian people, as Ew. supposes. "Each his hand," i.e., what lies to his hand, or next him.

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.