Matthew 9:36

OLBGrk;

Mark hath something of this, Mark 6:34. It pitied him, who came down from heaven to earth to seek and to save lost souls, to see what a company of people followed him, willing to be instructed, because they were eklelumenoi, or, as some read it, eskulmenoi, tired and wearied with running after him to hear the gospel, and errimmenoi, scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Had then the Jews at this time no ministry? They had the temple at Jerusalem, scribes, and Pharisees, and priests; synagogues in other places, where the law was read and interpreted. Christ accounts those people to have no ministers who have no good ones; but either dumb dogs, that cannot bark, or lazy ones, that will not. Such was the generality of the Jewish ministry at this time. This moved the bowels of Christ (so the word signifies). It is a great misery when the congregation of the Lord are as sheep which have no shepherd, Numbers 27:17; and so they are when they have no true prophets of the Lord to instruct them, 1 Kings 22:17.