False shepherds
34
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 📚“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed only themselves 📖! Should not the shepherds 📖 feed the flocks? 3 📚You eat the fat, and you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the flock. 4 📚You have not strengthened the weak, nor have you healed the sick, nor have you bound up what was broken, nor have you brought back what was driven away, nor have you sought what was lost, but you have ruled the sheep with force and with cruelty.34:3-4 This is always the behavior of leaders who look out only for themselves and not for the people in their care.⚜
5 📚And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd 📖. And when they were scattered, they became food for all the beasts of the field. 6 📚My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my flock was scattered over the surface of the whole earth, and no one searched for them or sought them.
7 📚“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 📚As I live, says the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd and my shepherds did not search for my flock, because the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock, 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. 10 📚Thus says the Lord God: See, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the flock. And the shepherds will not feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.
34:7-10 God will hold leaders responsible for their behavior if they care only for themselves, and they should not expect to escape the judgment of God.⚜
The true Shepherd
11 📚“For thus says the Lord God: See, I, I myself, will search for my sheep, and seek them out. 12 📚I will seek out my sheep as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day that he is among his scattered sheep, and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 📚And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them on the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 📚I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie in a good fold, and will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 📚I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God. 16 📚I will seek 📖 what was lost, and bring back what was driven away, and I will bind up what was broken, and will strengthen what was weak. But I will destroy the fat and the strong 📖 ones. I will feed them with judgment.’
34:11-16 Here we see God Himself as shepherd. He will do what human leaders have failed to do. For other references to the Lord as shepherd see Ps 23:4-6; 80:1; Isa 40:11; Jer 23:3-4; John 10:1-16.⚜
17 📚“And as for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord God: See, I will judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the male goats.
34:17 Compare Matt 25:32-33.⚜
18 📚Does it seem such a small thing to you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must trample down the rest of the pastures with your feet? And to have drunk of the deep waters, that you must muddy the rest with your feet? 19 And as for my flock, they eat what you have trampled down with your feet, and they drink what you have muddied with your feet.
20 📚“Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: See, I, I myself, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 📚Because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the weak ones with your horns until you scattered them away, 22 📚therefore I will save my flock, and they will no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 📚And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.
34:23 There have been three suggested interpretations of the word “David” here – some say the prince will be David risen from the dead. Others say he will be some descendant from David’s royal house. Still others say he will be the Messiah the son of David. If “David” here is identical with the prince of Ezek 44:3; and 45:22, he cannot be the Messiah. See those verses.⚜
24 📚And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken it.
25 📚“And I will make a covenant of peace 📖 with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease from the land. And they will live safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 26 📚And I will make them and the places around my hill 📖 a blessing; and I will cause the shower to fall in its season. There will be showers of blessing 📖. 27 📚And the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its crops. And they will be safe in their land, and will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those who made them their servants. 28 📚And they will no longer be a prey to the heathen, nor will the beasts of the land devour them, but they will live safely, and no one will make them afraid. 29 📚And I will establish for them a famous ground for planting, and they will no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, or bear the insults of the nations any more.
34:27-29 A promise of a complete reversal of their present circumstances.⚜
30 📚Thus they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. 31 📚And you, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord God”.