Condemnation of Bad Shepherds and Promise of a Good Shepherd
Ezekiel 34:1-31
1The word of the LORD came to me, saying,2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who were pasturing them! Will not the shepherds pasture the flock?3You eat the fat, and you clothe yourselves with the wool; you sacrifice the fat one; you do not pasture the flock.4You have not strengthened the weak, and you have not healed the sick, and you have not bound up the broken, and you have not returned the banished, and you have not sought the perishing; and with force and with severity you ruled them.5And they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for every wild animal of the field, and they were scattered.6My flock wanders on all the mountains and upon every high hill; upon all the face of the land my flock was scattered, and there is no one seeking and no one searching.7Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.8As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became plunder and my flock became food for every wild animal of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not seek my flock, and the shepherds pastured them while they did not pasture my flock,9therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.10Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek my flock from their hand, and I will make them cease from pasturing flock, and the shepherds will no longer pasture them, and I will rescue my flock from their mouth, and they will not become food for them.11For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I myself will seek my flock and I will enquire after them.12As a shepherd seeks his flock on the day he is among his flock that is scattered, so I will enquire after my flock; and I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of cloud and thick cloud.13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the lands and bring them to their own land; and I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the channels and in all the settlements of the land.14I will pasture them in a pleasant pasture, and on the mountains of the height of Israel their pasture will be; there they will lie down in a pleasant pasture, and they will pasture rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.15I will pasture my flock, and I will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.16I will seek the perishing one, and I will return the banished one, and I will bind up the broken one, and I will strengthen the weak one, and I will destroy the rich one and the strong one; I will pasture her in justice.17And you are my flock; thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am judging between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.18Is it too little for you that you pasture the pleasant pasture, and the remainder of your pastures you trample with your feet, and you drink clarified water while you foul the remaining water with your feet?19And my flock will pasture the trampling of your feet, and they will drink the mud of your feet.20Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.21Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and you gore with your horns all the weak ones until you have scattered them abroad,22I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plunder, and I will judge between sheep and sheep.23I will raise up one shepherd over them, and he will pasture them—my servant David; he will pasture them, and he will be a shepherd to them.24I the LORD will be God to them, and my servant David will be leader in their midst; I the LORD have spoken.25I will make a covenant of peace with them and remove harmful wild animals from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.26I will grant them blessing around my hill, and I will send down the rain in its season; rains of blessing they will be.27The tree of the land will yield its fruit, and the land will yield its crop; they will dwell securely on their land, and they will know that I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.28They will no longer be plunder for the nations, and wild animals of the land will not devour them; they will dwell securely, and none will make them afraid.29I will establish for them a plantation of renown; they will no longer suffer famine in the land, nor will they bear the shame of the nations any longer.30They will know that I the LORD their God am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.31You are my flock, the flock that I pasture; you are men, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.