⁷ Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: ⁸ “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “certainly, because My flock has become ^(A)plunder, and My flock has become food for all the animals of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock, ⁹ therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁰ ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am ^(B)against the shepherds, and I will demand My ^[a]sheep ^[b]from them and make them ^(C)stop tending sheep. So the shepherds will not ^[c]feed themselves anymore, but I will ^(D)save My sheep from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”’”

The Restoration of Israel

¹¹ For the Lord God says this: “Behold, I Myself will ^(E)search for My sheep and look after them. ^12 (F)As a shepherd cares for his flock on a day when he is among his scattered ^[d]sheep, so I will ^(G)care for My ^[e]sheep and will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a ^(H)cloudy and gloomy day. ¹³ I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will ^(I)feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ^(J)streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. ¹⁴ I will feed them in a ^(K)good pasture, and their grazing place will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in a good grazing place and feed in ^[f](L)rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I Myself will ^(M)feed My flock and I Myself will ^[g]lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁶ “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the ^(N)fat and the strong I will eliminate. I will ^(O)feed them with judgment.

¹⁷ “As for you, My flock, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I am going to ^(P)judge between one ^[h]sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats. ¹⁸ Is it too ^(Q)little a thing for you to feed in the good pasture, that you must trample with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or too little for you to drink the clear waters, that you must muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ But as for My flock, they must eat what you trample with your feet, and drink what you muddy with your feet!’”

²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says to them: “Behold, I, I Myself will also judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Since you push away with your side and shoulder, and ^(R)gore all the ^[i]weak with your horns until you have scattered them ^[j]abroad, ²² therefore, I will ^(S)save My flock, and they will no longer be plunder; and I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³ “Then I will ^(T)appoint over them one ^(U)shepherd, My servant ^(V)David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. ²⁴ And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant ^(W)David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.