_Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats,
for the Lord, &c._
The apparently indiscriminate use of the past and future tenses, in
scriptural and prophetic language, has perplexed the best Hebrew scholars.
On the conversive power of the ו, Granville Sharpe’s is perhaps the best
treatise. In the present case, unless the ו retain that power when
disjoined from the verb, there is no reason for rendering the future אפקוד
(or דוקפא) as a perfect, or, _I punished_, instead of _I will punish_.
And, as Mr. Lowth observes, the כי (or יכ) which follows would be more
properly rendered _But_ than _For_, and it will then be—_mine anger is
kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goats; But the Lord
of Hosts_, &c. The shepherds and the goats both signify leaders of the
flock.