The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof,.... Both civil and ecclesiastical; the princes, chief priests, and elders of the people, who set themselves and took counsel together against the Lord and his Christ; would not suffer the people to be gathered to him; sought his life, and at last took it away.
For ye have eaten up the vineyard, or burnt it ; the house of Israel, and of Judah compared to a vineyard, in a following chapter; and so the Targum,"ye have oppressed my people;''these are the husbandmen our Lord speaks of, that beat the servants that were sent for the fruits of the vineyard, and at last killed the heir, Mt 21:34.
The spoil of the poor [is] in your houses; the Pharisees devoured widows' houses, and filled their own, with the spoil of them, Mt 23:14.