They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; But they won't find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.
The prophet describes the people, as complying with God’s commands; “they shall go,” i. e., to the place which God had chosen and commanded, “with their flocks and their herds,” i. e., with the most costly sacrifices, “the flocks” supplying the sheep and goats prescribed by the law; the “herds” supplying the bullocks, calves and heifers offered. They seem to have come, so far, sincerely. Yet perhaps it is not without further meaning, that the prophet speaks of those outward sacrifices only, not of the heart; and the reformation under Josiah may therefore have failed, because the people were too ingrained with sin under Manasseh, and returned outwardly only under Josiah, as they fell back again after his death. And so God speaketh here, as He does by David, “I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor he-goat out of thy fold. Thinkest thou, that I will eat bulls’ flesh, or drink the blood of goats?” Psalms 50:9, Psalms 50:13, and by Isaiah, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts” Isaiah 1:11.