My sheep were scattered for the lack of a shepherd and became food for the wild beasts. For that reason, I am coming against these shepherds. The relationship between God and God’s people has always been understood as analogous to the relationship that exists between sheep and their shepherd. God has always seen the self as the shepherd and the people as the sheep, with the implication that the sheep belong to the shepherd. This comes out clearly in the history of the God’s journey with the people of Israel. God called the people of Israel and made them God’s own, fighting and winning battles in their stead. When God appointed men and women in positions of authority over the people of Israel (judges, prophets, kings and queens), their roles were understood as a participation in God’s shepherding responsibility (cf. Jeremiah 3:15: “ I will give you shepherds after my own heart…”). As shepherds, the welfare of the people was their sole responsibility. They were to be on the look for wolves and other wild beasts who threatened the life of the herd. However, some of the shepherds God appointed to watch over the sheep failed in their responsibility. Not only did they leave the sheep at the mercy of wild beasts, they themselves turned against the sheep in order to devour them. This is why in today’s First Reading we hear God declaring war against the shepherds. 
In the verse from Jeremiah we have quoted above, the shepherds were to carry out their responsibility in wisdom and discretion after God’s heart. In other words, they were to shepherd the sheep in the manner of God, that is, with tenderness, love, kindness. The shepherds were to understand themselves not as hirelings but rather as the owners of the sheep. To pull this off, the shepherds were to learn from God in order to gain the requisite knowledge (and wisdom). And as long as the shepherds listened to, and obeyed God, this was possible. However, when they turned their back on God, so too did they lose the tools they needed for this job. They became alien both to the sheep and to their shepherding responsibility. With the trust which the Lord had in them gone, they could no longer be referred to as shepherd.