Ezekiel 34:10-31

34:10 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand. I will no longer let them be shepherds; ¹  the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore. I will rescue my sheep from their mouth, so that they will no longer be food for them.

34:11 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. 34:12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy, dark day. ²  34:13 I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land. 34:14 In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush ³  pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. 34:15 I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord. 34:16 I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them – with judgment!

34:17 “‘As for you, my sheep, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats. 34:18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? When you drink clean water, must you muddy the rest of the water by trampling it with your feet? 34:19 As for my sheep, they must eat what you trampled with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet!

34:20 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says to them: Look, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 34:21 Because you push with your side and your shoulder, and thrust your horns at all the weak sheep until you scatter them abroad, ⁴  34:22 I will save my sheep; they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ⁵  He will feed them and will be their shepherd. 34:24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince ⁶  among them; I, the Lord, have spoken!

34:25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ⁷  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ⁸  34:26 I will turn them and the regions around my hill into a blessing. I will make showers come down in their season; they will be showers that bring blessing. ⁹  34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; 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. 34:28 They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid. 34:29 I will prepare for them a healthy ¹⁰  planting. They will no longer be victims ¹¹  of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations. 34:30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, ¹²  and that they are my people, the house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. ¹³  34:31 And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, ¹⁴  and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Ezekiel 44:10

44:10 “‘But the Levites who went far from me, straying off from me after their idols when Israel went astray, will be responsible for ¹⁵  their sin.

Ezekiel 44:15

The Levitical Priests

44:15 “‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok ¹⁶  who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

Ezekiel 48:11

48:11 This will be for the priests who are set apart from the descendants of Zadok who kept my charge and did not go astray when the people of Israel strayed off, like the Levites did. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 13:11

13:11 Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 19:20

19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.

Psalms 119:67

119:67 Before I was afflicted I used to stray off, ¹⁹ 

but now I keep your instructions. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 9:16

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 23:15

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ²² 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ²³ 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ²⁴ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ²⁵ 

that ungodliness ²⁶  has spread throughout the land.’”

Jeremiah 50:6

50:6 “My people have been lost sheep.

Their shepherds ²⁷  have allow them to go astray.

They have wandered around in the mountains.

They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. ²⁸ 

They have forgotten their resting place.

Jeremiah 50:2

50:2 “Announce ²⁹  the news among the nations! Proclaim it!

Signal for people to pay attention! ³⁰ 

Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say:

‘Babylon will be captured.

Bel ³¹  will be put to shame.

Marduk will be dismayed.

Babylon’s idols will be put to shame.

Her disgusting images ³²  will be dismayed. ³³ 

Jeremiah 2:15

2:15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him;

they raise their voices in triumph. ³⁴ 

They have laid his land waste;

his cities have been burned down and deserted. ³⁵ 

[34:10]  ¹ tn Heb “I will cause them to cease from feeding sheep.”

[34:12]  ² sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6 b.c.

[34:14]  ³ tn Heb “good.”

[34:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “outside.”

[34:23]  ⁵ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[34:24]  ⁶ sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).

[34:25]  ⁷ tn The phrase “live securely” occurs in Ezek 28:26; 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 as an expression of freedom from fear. It is a promised blessing resulting from obedience (see Lev 26:5-6).

[34:25]  ⁸ sn The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20-21; Jer 5:6).

[34:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).

[34:29]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads לְשֵׁם (lÿshem, “for a name”), meaning perhaps a renowned planting (place). The translation takes this to be a metathesis of שָׁלֹם (shalom) as was read by the LXX.

[34:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.

[34:30]  ¹² sn A promise given to Abraham (Gen 15:7) and his descendants (Gen 15:8; Exod 6:7).

[34:30]  ¹³ sn The blessings described in vv. 25-30 are those promised for obedience in Lev 26:4-13.

[34:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb, “the sheep of my pasture, you are human.” See 36:37-38 for a similar expression. The possessive pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation to balance “I am your God” in the next clause.

[44:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will bear.”

[44:15]  ¹⁶ sn Zadok was a descendant of Aaron through Eleazar (1 Chr 6:50-53), who served as a priest during David’s reign (2 Sam 8:17).

[48:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “strayed off.”

[13:11]  ¹⁸ sn Some see in this statement an argument for the deterrent effect of capital punishment (Deut 17:13; 19:20; 21:21).

[119:67]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “before I suffered, I was straying off.”

[119:67]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your word.”

[9:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[23:15]  ²² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:15]  ²³ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…concerning the prophets.” The person is shifted to better conform with English style and the word “of Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the judgment applies to the prophets of Samaria who had already been judged long before.

[23:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” For these same words of judgment on another group see 9:15 (9:14 HT). “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[23:15]  ²⁵ tn The compound preposition מֵאֵת (me’et) expresses source or origin (see BDB 86 s.v. אֵת 4.c). Context shows that the origin is in their false prophesying which encourages people in their evil behavior.

[23:15]  ²⁶ sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the Lord’s criticism of the prophet and priest. This is a common rhetorical device for bracketing material that belongs together. The criticism has, however, focused on the false prophets and the judgment due them.

[50:6]  ²⁷ sn The shepherds are the priests, prophets, and leaders who have led Israel into idolatry (2:8).

[50:6]  ²⁸ sn The allusion here, if it is not merely a part of the metaphor of the wandering sheep, is to the worship of the false gods on the high hills (2:20, 3:2).

[50:2]  ²⁹ tn The verbs are masculine plural. Jeremiah is calling on other unnamed messengers to spread the news.

[50:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Raise a signal flag.”

[50:2]  ³¹ sn Bel was originally the name or title applied to the Sumerian storm god. During the height of Babylon’s power it became a title that was applied to Marduk who was Babylon’s chief deity. As a title it means “Lord.” Here it is a poetical parallel reference to Marduk mentioned in the next line.

[50:2]  ³² tn The Hebrew word used here (גִּלּוּלִים, gillulim) is always used as a disdainful reference to idols. It is generally thought to have originally referred to “dung pellets” (cf. KBL 183 s.v. גִלּוּלִים). It is only one of several terms used in this way, such as “worthless things” (אַלִילִים, ’alilim), “vanities,” or “empty winds” (הֲבָלִים, havalim).

[50:2]  ³³ tn The verbs here are all in the tense that views the actions as though they were already done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The verbs in the next verse are a mixture of prophetic perfects and imperfects which announce future actions.

[2:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Lions shout over him, they give out [raise] their voices.”

[2:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “without inhabitant.”