And they were scattered, &c. Driven into other parts of the land, or into other countries, by the severity, exactions, and oppressions of their rulers. Because there is no shepherd No one worthy of the name of a shepherd; none that cared for or properly watched over and fed the flock. And they became meat to all the beasts of the field They were made a prey to, and were spoiled by, their enemies, temporal and spiritual. My sheep wandered through all the mountains As silly sheep, when there is no one to look after them, wander from one mountain and hill to another; so my thoughtless and infatuated people, disregarded and neglected, or treated with cruelty by those that should have protected and guided them, have manifested their ignorance and folly in following various species of idolatry, and in forming to themselves religions after their own imaginations, full of superstition and impiety. And none did search or seek after them Their priests and princes were so far from calling them back from these wanderings, that they were the first to follow them; nay, and even to go before, and set them the example.

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