Ezekiel 34:1-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 34
Parable of the Shepherds. 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds[a] of Israel. Prophesy and say to them: To the shepherds, thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves!(A) Should not shepherds pasture the flock? 3 You consumed milk, wore wool, and slaughtered fatlings, but the flock you did not pasture.(B) 4 You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the stray or seek the lost but ruled them harshly and brutally.(C) 5 So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts. They were scattered(D) 6 and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; over the entire surface of the earth my sheep were scattered. No one looked after them or searched for them.
7 Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live—oracle of the Lord God—because my sheep became plunder, because my sheep became food for wild beasts, for lack of a shepherd, because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep,(E) 9 therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God: Look! I am coming against these shepherds. I will take my sheep out of their hand and put a stop to their shepherding my flock, so that these shepherds will no longer pasture them. I will deliver my flock from their mouths so it will not become their food.(F)
11 For thus says the Lord God: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them. 12 As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so will I examine my sheep. I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds.(G) 13 I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and every inhabited place in the land.(H) 14 In good pastures I will pasture them; on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down on good grazing ground; in rich pastures they will be pastured on the mountains of Israel.(I) 15 I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest—oracle of the Lord God. 16 The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal; but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them in judgment.
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- 34:2 Shepherds: the leaders of the people. A frequent title for kings and deities in the ancient Near East; the ideal ruler took care of his subjects and anticipated their needs. Ezekiel’s oracle broadens the reference to include the whole class of Jerusalem’s leaders (v. 17). The prophet assures his audience, the exiles in Babylon, that God holds these leaders responsible for what has happened to Jerusalem and will give Israel a new shepherd worthy of the title.
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