Ezekiel 34

Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said:

1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

NoteWhere the rendering prints "the LORD" in capitals, the Hebrew has the personal name of Israel's God (the four letters usually written YHWH), which Jewish readers traditionally do not pronounce. "Lord GOD" renders a double form, roughly "my Master, YHWH." The capitals are a printing convention carried over from the King James Version, not a difference in meaning.

2"Son of man, speak against the shepherds of Israel. Speak for me and tell them this is what the Lord GOD says to the shepherds: How terrible for the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Shouldn't shepherds feed the flock?

2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Note"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being" or "mortal." It is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, over ninety times; it is not a title. "Shepherd" was standard political vocabulary across the ancient Near East for a king or ruler, used of Babylonian and Egyptian monarchs as well as Israelite ones. The whole chapter is an attack on Israel's rulers, and the first hearers would have understood "shepherds" that way immediately.

3You eat the fat, you wear the wool, and you butcher the fattened animals, but you do not feed the flock.

3Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

NoteThe fat was the richest and most prized part of a slaughtered animal, and the fattened animals were the ones raised for eating rather than for wool or breeding. The charge is that the shepherds are consuming the best of what belongs to the flock's owner.

4You have not made the weak ones strong. You have not healed the sick. You have not bandaged the injured. You have not brought back the ones that strayed, and you have not gone looking for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty.

4The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd. Once they were scattered, they became food for every wild animal.

5And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

6My sheep wandered over all the mountains and every high hill. My flock was scattered across the whole earth, and no one searched for them or went looking for them.

6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

7So, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

7Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

8As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD: my flock had no shepherd, so it was hunted and became food for every wild animal. My shepherds did not search for my flock. They fed themselves instead of feeding my flock.

8As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

Note"As surely as I live" is a formal oath. A person swore by something greater than themselves; God, having nothing greater, swears by his own life. The formula marks what follows as binding and irreversible.

9So, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.

9Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

10This is what the Lord GOD says: I am against the shepherds. I will hold them accountable for my flock. I will stop them from tending the flock, so they can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and the sheep will not be food for them.

10Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

11For this is what the Lord GOD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look for them.

11For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

12A shepherd goes looking for his scattered sheep when he is out among them. In the same way I will look for my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered on a dark and cloudy day.

12As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

Note"A dark and cloudy day" is a stock phrase in the prophets for a day of disaster and judgment, not a description of the weather. Ezekiel's hearers would connect it with the fall of Jerusalem.

13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the other countries. I will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys where the streams run, and in every settled place in the land.

13And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

NoteEzekiel was writing among Judeans deported to Babylon after Jerusalem fell in 587 BC, with others having fled to Egypt and elsewhere. "Bring them out from the peoples" is about ending that dispersal and returning the survivors home.

14I will feed them in good pasture, and the high mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing place, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

14I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

15I will feed my flock and make them lie down, says the Lord GOD.

15I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

16I will look for the lost and bring back the ones that strayed. I will bandage the injured and make the weak ones strong. But the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.

16I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. The traditional Hebrew text reads "the fat and the strong I will destroy," as rendered; the ancient Greek and Syriac translations read a nearly identical Hebrew word meaning "I will watch over" or "guard": that is, the strong will be cared for too. The two readings differ by one letter.

17And to you, my flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: I will judge between one animal and another, between the rams and the male goats.

17And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

NoteThe rams and male goats are the large, dominant animals that push their way to food and water first. The image shifts here: God has finished with the rulers and is now addressing members of the community who bully the weaker ones.

18Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?

18Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

NoteIn a dry land, good grazing and clean water sources were limited and could not simply be replaced. An animal that ate its fill and then trampled the remaining grass and stirred mud into the water ruined it for everything that came after.

19So my flock has to eat what your feet have trampled and drink what your feet have muddied.

19And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

20So this is what the Lord GOD says to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.

20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.

21You shove with your side and your shoulder. You butt all the weak ones with your horns until you have driven them away.

21Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;

22So I will save my flock, and they will no longer be hunted. I will judge between one animal and another.

22Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

23I will put one shepherd over them, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.

23And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

NoteDavid had been dead about four centuries when Ezekiel spoke. "My servant David" means a future ruler from David's line; the founder's name is used for the dynasty, much as a later ruler might be called a new Caesar. The point of "one shepherd" is a single ruler replacing the many failed ones.

24I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I the LORD have said it.

24And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.

Note"Prince" here is the Hebrew word nasi, meaning a leader or chief. Ezekiel consistently avoids the ordinary word for "king" (melek) for this future ruler, using the less grand term instead.

25I will make an agreement of peace with them. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, so they can live safely in the open country and sleep in the woods.

25And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

NoteA covenant was a formal, binding agreement, the ancient equivalent of a treaty, and was the standard way of describing the relationship between God and Israel. "Peace" translates shalom, which means safety, wholeness and prosperity, not merely the absence of fighting. Sleeping in open country or woodland was dangerous because of predators and bandits; the promise is that it will become safe.

26I will make them, and the places all around my hill, a blessing. I will send the rain at the right time of year. There will be showers of blessing.

26And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

Note"My hill" is Mount Zion, the ridge in Jerusalem where the temple stood. Rain in this land fell in two seasons, the autumn rains that softened the ground for plowing and the spring rains that filled out the grain, and a crop failed if either did not come. "Rain at the right time of year" means both arriving on schedule.

27The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the ground will give its crops. The people will be safe in their own land. They will know that I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from those who used them as slaves.

27And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.

NoteA yoke was the wooden beam laid across the necks of draft animals, held in place by pegs or bars. Breaking the bars released the animal, and the image was the ordinary way of speaking about being freed from the control of a foreign power.

28They will no longer be prey for the nations, and wild animals will not eat them. They will live safely, and no one will frighten them.

28And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.

Note"The nations" translates goyim, the King James "heathen", simply the peoples other than Israel, with no comment on their religion implied by the word itself.

29I will give them a planting that is famous, and they will no longer be destroyed by hunger in the land or have to bear the insults of the nations.

29And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase is obscure and translators differ: it can mean a planting or plantation that is famous, understood as land made spectacularly fertile, or, with a small change to the text that some ancient versions support, "a planting of peace" or "of prosperity." Some later readers took "planting" as a term for a promised individual ruler. The vagueness is in the original.

30Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Lord GOD.

30Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.

31You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture, and you are human beings; and I am your God, says the Lord GOD."

31And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.

NoteThe Hebrew ends bluntly: "you are adam", you are human beings. After thirty verses of sheep and shepherds, the final line drops the figure of speech and says plainly who the flock is. Some translations render the word as "my people" instead, following the ancient Greek version.