The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 34 Prophecy against the unfaithful shepherds of Israel

 The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 34

Prophecy against the unfaithful shepherds of Israel

1 The word of the Lord came to me:

2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?

3 You eat the curds and clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the fatlings, but you do not take care of the flock.

4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strayed or sought the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.

5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals, because they were scattered.

6 My sheep wander over all the mountains and on every high hill; yes, my sheep are scattered over all the face of the earth, and there is no one who searches or seeks for them.

7 Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

8 As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have been given over to plunder, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my sheep, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep;

9 Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

10 Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand, and they shall cease feeding the sheep, and shall no longer feed themselves; And I will deliver my sheep from their mouths, and they shall no more be food for them.

11 For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.

12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep: and will bring them again out of all places whither they were scattered, in the day of the cloud and of thick darkness.

13 And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will bring them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land, and will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.

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

15 I will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.

16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

17 As for you, my sheep, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one flock and another, between the rams and the goats.

18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? And to drink the deep waters, but you must also muddy the rest with your feet?

19 As for my sheep, they feed on what has been trampled with your feet and drink what has been muddied with your feet.

20 Therefore the Lord God says to them: Behold, I, I myself, will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle.

21 Because you push with your side and shoulder, and gore all the weak ones with your horns, until you scatter them abroad,

22 I will deliver my sheep, so that they will no longer be prey, and I will judge between small cattle and small cattle.

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

24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them: I, the Lord, have spoken it.

25 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will rid the land of wild beasts, and they shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

26 And 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.

27 And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the rods of their yoke, and deliver them out of the hand of them that served them.

28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the earth devour them any more: and they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.

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

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

31 You, therefore, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, but I am your God, declares the Lord God.