Verse 17
The king of Assyria, Shalmanezer, had scattered the Israelites in the Northern Kingdom like sheep (in 722 B.C.; 2 Kings 17:1-6; 2 Kings 18:9-12), and the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had done worse to the Judahites in the south (in 605-581 B.C.; Jeremiah 4:7; 2 Kings 24). He had broken their bones-not just scattered the people but also slain them.
"Politically, the intrigues and treacheries of Judah’s kings (’shepherds’, as the Old Testament regards them) had brought Assyria and now Babylon to the kill. Spiritually too (to adopt the New Testament connotation of ’shepherd’), a badly pastored flock is soon astray, then swiftly preyed upon." [Note: Kidner, p. 150.]
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