Ezekielchapter 34
31 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel wrote this for exiles whose kings and leaders had led them into ruin. In his world a king was commonly called the shepherd of his people, so every hearer knew at once who was being charged. The chapter sets the work a true shepherd owed his flock beside what Israel's rulers had done instead. Listen for the list of duties left undone. Listen then for the moment God says He will search for His sheep Himself, and for the one shepherd He promises to set over them. It ends with a covenant of peace for a scattered people.
Context
- Who
- Exiles whose leaders had led them straight into catastrophe
- What
- A charge against the rulers of Israel as false shepherds, a promise that God will shepherd His flock Himself, and the promise of one shepherd, His servant David.
- Where
- Spoken at Tel Abib in Babylonia to exiles scattered from the land of Israel.
- When
- About 585 BC, after the fall of Jerusalem, in the Babylonian exile.
- Why
- To name the failure of Israel's leaders, to comfort a scattered people with God's own care, and to promise a faithful ruler and lasting peace.
Historical context
Shepherd was the standard royal title across the whole ancient Near East. Hammurabi calls himself the shepherd of his people in the prologue to his laws; Assyrian and Egyptian kings used the same word, and Egyptian pharaohs carried a crook. Nobody hearing this chapter would have needed the metaphor explained; it was the official language of government.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The actual work is what gives the accusation its edge. A shepherd was legally responsible for the flock, if an animal was killed he had to produce the remains as evidence, and if it went missing he made it good himself. He strengthened the weak, carried the lame, went out after strays, and stayed with the flock at night against wolves and thieves. Ezekiel lists these duties one by one and says the leaders did none of them.
What they did do is take the produce: you eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the flock. Wool, milk and meat were the shepherd's legitimate return, and the point is that they collected without doing the job.
The second half brings in a farmyard fact anyone who has watched sheep knows. The strong animals push into the best pasture, and then they trample what they do not eat and muddy the water with their feet, so the weaker animals get fouled grass and dirty water. God says He will judge between fat sheep and lean sheep, the strong exploiting the weak inside the flock, not only from above it.
Then the promise: I myself will search for my sheep. And with it, one shepherd, my servant David, set over them as a prince. Read in the house frame here, that points forward to a real Davidic king ruling a restored people in the coming kingdom; others take it as a purely spiritual reign of the Messiah over His church.
Significance
This is what the exiles needed said out loud. The disaster was not simply their own sin; it was also leadership that had used them. God names it and fires them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And then He does something that would have sounded almost improper: He takes the job Himself. I will feed them, I will make them lie down, I will bind up the injured, I will strengthen the weak. For scattered people on foreign canals, the sentence that mattered most was the one about a covenant of peace, in which they dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods, and nobody makes them afraid.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the twelfth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Sh'lach 6:1. Under the fourteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 7:6. Under the seventeenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 31:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
Rashi reads the shepherds of Israel plainly as "the leaders of Israel" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:2:1). Their fault is neglect of justice as much as of care. The flock wanders free for anyone to take. The charge follows: "you did not reprove them and did not judge between a man and his fellow" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:6:1). The weak they failed to strengthen are "those emaciated without strength", who need support "with the hand" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:4:1).
God's own seeking of the flock is read in the sense of visiting the sick (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:11:1). The judgment between one sheep and another is "between the strong, violent men and the weak ones" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:17:1). The fat and strong to be destroyed is the one "who pushes and presses her fellows" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:16:1). At the nineteenth verse he reads the trampled pasture as the poor living on the leavings of the powerful: "My people eat the residue of the food of your attendants" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:19:1).
The promise of one shepherd, David, Rashi reads in five words: "A king [who will come] from his descendants" (Rashi on Ezekiel 34:23:1).
The corpus carries eleven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Ezekiel 34:1:1, 34:3:1, 34:5:1, 34:7:1, 34:9:1, 34:13:1, 34:14:1, 34:15:1, 34:21:1, 34:22:1 and 34:24:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Yirmiyahu, Introduction 1. On the sixth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 5:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 34:3. On the twelfth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 16:25 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Sh'lach 6:1.
On the fourteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 1:1, Bereshit Rabbah 33:1 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, Additions 10:1. It also holds Midrash Mishlei 27:5, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 7:6 there. On the fifteenth verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 23:6, Pesikta Rabbati 34:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 11:20. On the seventeenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 34:13, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:6:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 31:1. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 145:1 there. On the nineteenth verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 47:9.
On the twentieth verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 30:17. On the twenty-second verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 104:12, Midrash Tehillim 119:30 and Midrash Tehillim 29:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 62 there. On the twenty-third verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 148:1. On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 83:1 and Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:4:11.
On the twenty-fifth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 13, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:12:11 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:28:1. It also holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 41:17 and Sifrei Devarim 352:6 there. On the twenty-sixth verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 3:11, Sifrei Devarim 42:5 and Vayikra Rabbah 35:12. On the thirty-first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 12:14 and Bava Metzia 114b:2. It also holds Bereshit Rabbah 53:3 and Bereshit Rabbah 65:14 there. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 34:2:1 to 34:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 34:1:1, 34:3:1, 34:5:1, 34:7:1, 34:9:1, 34:13:1, 34:14:1, 34:15:1, 34:21:1, 34:22:1 and 34:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/34.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this chapter and printing no weekly portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Shepherds who fed themselves and not the flock
Ezekiel 34:1-2
the word of the LORD came to me: The oracle turns from the land to Israel's own leaders, addressed under the shepherd-and-flock image rooted in Israel's history of shepherd kings from David down. The charge is set against the shepherds of Israel, the kings, princes and priests whose failure the book has been tracing toward the exile.
Ezekiel 34:1
“The prophet has yet to pronounce a judgment upon unfaithful rulers, whose punishment will further the good of those whom they have misguided. He shows what the rulers should have been, what they have been, and what in the coming times they shall be when the True King shall reign in the true kingdom. Hence, follows a description of Messiah’s reign.”
The word woe belongs to the prophets' cry of mourning, and here it is pronounced over the living shepherds of Israel. The closing question sets the standard for the whole chapter. Shepherds exist to feed the flock.
Ezekiel 34:2
“But the word is directed to the shepherds of Israel, whom we must understand as either kings, or princes, scribes and Pharisees, and teachers of the Jewish people. Or certainly in the Gospel people, the bishops, presbyters, and deacons: or according to mystical understanding, the Angels of the individual Churches, to whom John wrote in his Apocalypse (Apoc. I), and whose Angels daily see the face of God (Matthew XV). And it is said first: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who, although they should feed the Lord's flock and provide for its salvation, hasten to satisfy their own luxury.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:2
“Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel - The shepherds include, first, the priests and Levites; secondly, the kings, princes, and magistrates. The flock means the whole of the people. The fat and the wool, the tithes and offerings, the taxes and imposts.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 34:3-6
You eat the fat, wear the wool: The indictment is specific and material. The shepherds took the flock's wool and meat while leaving the sick unhealed, the broken unbound, the strayed unsought and the lost unfound. The consequence is named plainly, “They were scattered for lack of a shepherd”, laying the exile itself at the leaders' door.
Ezekiel 34:3
“Ye eat the fat - I think החלב hacheleb should be translated the milk, and so most of the Versions understand it. Or they lived on the fat sheep, and took the wool of all. “The priests,” says Calmet, “ate the tithes, the first-fruits, and the offerings of the people; the princes received the tributes and imposts and instead of instructing and protecting them, the latter took away their lives by the cruelties they practiced against them: the former destroyed their souls by the poison of their doctrine, and by their bad example.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:3
“Ye eat the fat,.... The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it, "the milk"; the words for fat and milk differ only in the points; and this was not unlawful, for who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 1Co 9:7, provided it was done with moderation, that they ate some, but not all; but these rulers milked their subjects too much, oppressed them with heavy taxes, and got their substance into their own hands.”
strengthened the weak, healed the sick: The failures run from sheep within reach, the weak, the sick and the injured, to sheep that had wandered off or were lost. The Hebrew word for cruelty is the one used of Egypt's harsh labour in Exodus 1:13. Leviticus 25:43 forbade ruling a fellow Israelite that way.
Ezekiel 34:4
“The diseased--rather, those weak from the effects of "disease," as "strengthened" (that is, with due nourishment) requires [GROTIUS]. broken--that is, fractures from wounds inflicted by the wolf. brought again . . . driven away-- (Ex 23:4). Those "driven away" by the enemy into foreign lands through God's judgments are meant (Jer 23:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:4
“The priests took no care to instruct the ignorant, to rectify the mistakes of those that were in error, to warn the unruly, or to comfort the feeble-minded. The ministers of state took no care to check the growing distempers of the kingdom, which threatened the vitals of it. Things were amiss, and out of course, every where, and nothing was done to rectify them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
scattered for lack of a shepherd: The wild beasts stand for the surrounding nations that preyed on the scattered sheep once Israel's shepherds failed, Babylon above all. Moses prayed at Numbers 27:17 that Israel would never be like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus saw the crowds that way at Matthew 9:36.
Ezekiel 34:5
“And they were scattered - There was no discipline kept up; and the flock, the Church, became disorganized, and separated from each other, both in affection and fellowship. And the consequence was, the grievous wolves, false and worldly interested teachers, seized on and made a prey of them. Of the communion of saints such shepherds know nothing, farther than that it makes a part of the common creed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
went astray on all the mountains: The mountains and every high hill were the places of Israel's idol shrines, condemned in chapter 6 and again at 18:6. Going astray there carries two senses. The flock wandered into idolatry at home and was then scattered into exile abroad.
Ezekiel 34:6
“Their case is bad who have reason to expect better treatment among strangers than in their own country. It may be meant of those of the flock that went astray from God and their duty; and the priests, that should have taught the good knowledge of the Lord, used no means to convince and reclaim them, so that they became an easy prey to seducers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:6
“My sheep wandered through all the mountains - They all became idolaters, and lost the knowledge of the true God. And could it be otherwise while they had such pastors? “Himself a wanderer from the narrow way; His silly sheep, no wonder that they stray!” Reader, if thou be a minister, a preacher, or a person in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, or art one pretending to holy orders, look at the qualifications of a good shepherd as laid down by the prophet. 1. He professes to be a shepherd, and to be qualified for the office.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 34:7-10
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word: The double summons, “hear the word of the LORD”, frames the sentence: God declares Himself against the shepherds and will “demand from them My flock”. They will be removed from tending the flock entirely, and the flock is delivered “from their mouths” and will no longer be food for them.
Ezekiel 34:7
“Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Or, "ye governors", as the Targum, both civil and ecclesiastical; ye kings, princes, and magistrates; ye prophets and teachers of the people, who ought to have attended to the word of grace, to the doctrines of the Scriptures, and fed the people with them; but, since you have not, hear the word of threatening from the Lord, and the just punishment that shall be inflicted on you.”
The LORD swears by His own life, the strongest oath in the prophets, since there is no one greater to swear by. The verse gathers the charges of verses 5 and 6 into the formal ground of a court sentence. The flock and the shepherds both belong to Him.
Ezekiel 34:8
“How much concerned God is for the flock; he speaks as if he were the more concerned for them because he saw them thus neglected, for with him the fatherless finds mercy. Precious promises are made here upon the occasion, which were to have their accomplishment in the return of the Jews out of their captivity and their re-establishment in their own land.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
therefore, you shepherds, hear the word: The oath of verse 8 breaks off before its sentence. So the summons to the shepherds is repeated to pick up the thread, and the LORD's verdict against them follows in verse 10. The shepherds who fed themselves must hear it.
Ezekiel 34:9
“Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is repeated, that it might be observed, and for the confirmation of it; it might be depended upon that what follows would be accomplished, unless they changed their conduct and behaviour; and, to leave them inexcusable, they are again called upon to hear what the Lord should say unto them. The Targum is, "therefore, O ye wicked governors, return to the law, and I will have mercy on you; hearken to the doctrine of the law, and receive the word of the Lord.''”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:9
“I myself will go to the shepherds and will seek out my flock from the hand of those who find it convenient to have a millstone placed around their neck.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekiel 11:34.1-31patristic
I will demand from them My flock: To demand the flock from a shepherd is the language of a herdsman's contract, in which a hired shepherd answered for every animal lost. The shepherds have become the beasts. Their own mouths are the danger.
Ezekiel 34:10
“I will - cause them to cease from feeding the flock - God, in this country, unpriested a whole hierarchy who fed not the flock, but ruled them with force and cruelty; and he raised up a new set of shepherds better qualified, both by sound doctrine and learning, to feed the flock. Let these be faithful, lest God cause them to cease, and raise up other feeders.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I myself will search for my sheep
Ezekiel 34:11-16
I Myself will search for My flock: What the shepherds failed to do, God announces He will do Himself. He will seek the scattered, bind the broken, strengthen the weak. The unit ends on a harder note, “the sleek and strong I will destroy”, naming that some had grown strong by preying on the weak.
Ezekiel 34:11
“Yahweh is the shepherd of His people. He will do all which the shepherds should have done and did not. These promises - partially fulfilled in the return from Babylon, and in the subsequent prosperity under the Maccabees - point to the ingathering of all nations in the Church of Christ the Good Shepherd. Compare Mat 18:11: John 10:1-18; Rom 9:25-33.”
ConnectionsJohn 10:11
on a day of clouds and darkness: A day of clouds and darkness is the prophets' language for the day of the LORD's judgment, used at Joel 2:2 and Zephaniah 1:15. Here it names the fall of Jerusalem and the deportations to Babylon. The search begins in that darkness.
Ezekiel 34:12
“He is shepherd to shepherds and a guide to guides: that we may feed his flock with knowledge, not with the instruments of a foolish shepherd.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · In Defense of His Flight to Pontus, Oration 2:117patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:12
“Cloudy and dark day - Times of general distress and persecution; in such times the shepherd should be especially watchful.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
bring them into their own land: The verbs bring out, gather and bring in follow the order of the exodus from Egypt. Commentators place the fulfilment in the return from Babylon, in a gathering of Israel still to come, or in both. The flock feeds on the mountains of Israel.
Ezekiel 34:13
“I will - feed them upon the mountains - When I bring back the people from their captivity, I will raise up to them a holy and diligent priesthood, who shall in all places give them sound instruction. But this, and some of the following promises, belong to the Christian Church, as we shall find below.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the lofty mountains of Israel: The lofty mountains are the same heights where the flock had strayed in verse 6, now turned into grazing land. Lying down is the sign of sheep that are fed and unafraid, the picture of Psalm 23:2. Ezekiel 20:40 calls this height the LORD's holy mountain.
Ezekiel 34:14
“20:40, the phrase is "the mountain of the height of Israel" in the singular number. The reason for the difference is: there Ezekiel spoke of the central seat of the kingdom, Mount Zion, where the people met for the worship of Jehovah; here he speaks of the kingdom of Israel at large, all the parts of which are regarded as possessing a moral elevation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 34:15
I will tend My flock: The Hebrew stresses that the LORD Himself tends the flock. Making the flock lie down is the shepherd's last task of the day, giving rest after the scattering of verse 12. Jesus takes up the same work when He calls Himself the good shepherd in John 10:11.
Ezekiel 34:15
“BEFORE this can be done there are certain preliminaries. A flock cannot be fed until it is in existence. It cannot be fed, as a flock, until all the scattered sheep shall have been brought together. Hence, in the context, other promises supply this deficiency! We find, for example, the Lord declaring that He will search out His sheep and seek them. They have gone far astray. Some of them seem to have so exhausted their patience in wandering that they have invented new forms of sin and new methods of transgression.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3528: “A Promise and a Providence” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Ezekiel 34:16
“I will destroy the fat and the strong - I will destroy those cruel and imperious shepherds who abuse their authority, and tyrannize over the flock.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:16
“IT is a great mercy that God never leaves His Church. He has not made a Church as a watchmaker constructs a watch, which, after being wound up, is left to depend upon the strength and fitness of the machinery, but He has made a Church which, though fitted with the best of machinery, needs His hand every moment to keep it in motion. He has lighted the lamps, but He walks among the golden candlesticks. He has fixed the pillars of the Temple, but His own almighty shoulders are the actual support thereof.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3087: “A Time of Finding for Lost Sheep” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Judging between the fat sheep and the lean
Ezekiel 34:17-22
between the rams and the goats: The judgment turns inward, distinguishing cattle and cattle within Israel itself: those who trampled the good pasture and fouled the clear water for the rest. The individual accountability pressed here runs alongside the argument chapter 18 made, that guilt and its judgment fall on the one who commits it.
Ezekiel 34:17
“And as for you, O my flock - After having spoken to the shepherds, he now addresses the flock. I judge between cattle and cattle - Between false and true professors; between them that have only the form and them that have the power of godliness; between the backslider in heart and the upright man.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 34:18
“Have eaten up the good pasture - Arrogate to yourselves all the promises of God, and will hardly permit the simple believer to claim or possess any token of God’s favor. Ye must foul the residue with your feet? - Ye abuse God’s mercies; you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more, on which the poor would have been glad to feed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:18
“But ye must tread down - You great ones, eat the fat, and sweet; and what you cannot eat, you waste and spoil. The deep waters - Which are sufficient for all.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The weak sheep are the LORD's flock, and He claims them as His own against the strong. Trampled food and muddied water are all they have left. Amos 4:1 brings the same charge against the women of Samaria who crushed the needy.
Ezekiel 34:19
“And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet,.... They are forced to do it, not being able to come at any thing else; being as sheep without a shepherd, or worse: and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet; which, as it cannot be agreeable and relishing, so neither wholesome; as the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees; the traditions of the elders; the false doctrines of false teachers, whose words eat as do a canker.”
between the fat sheep and the lean: The LORD again acts in person, as in verse 11. The fat sheep and the lean describe power and wealth inside the people, and the LORD alone will judge between them. Mary's song at Luke 1:53 names the same reversal, the hungry filled and the wealthy sent away empty.
Ezekiel 34:20
“I will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle - Between the rich and the poor; those who fare sumptuously every day and those who have not the necessaries of life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
shove with flank and shoulder: The strong sheep scatter the weak a second time. Verse 5 blamed the shepherds for the first scattering, and here members of the flock shove their own neighbors away with flank and shoulder. Horns picture strength, and here that strength is turned on the weak.
I will save My flock: Save is the verb of deliverance used for the exodus at Exodus 14:30. The rescue has two sides, from the nations outside and from the strong sheep within. The judging between sheep repeats verse 17 and closes the unit.
Ezekiel 34:22
“After the restoration from Babylon, the Jews were delivered in some degree from the oppression, not only of foreigners, but also of their own great people (Ne 5:1-19). The full and final fulfilment of this prophecy is future.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
One shepherd, David, and a covenant of peace
Ezekiel 34:23-24
I will appoint over them one shepherd: The promise culminates in a single figure, my servant David. The Jewish and Christian reading takes David as the coming Messiah of David's line, the reading the church has carried into John 10's good shepherd. A minority reading has looked for a literal, raised David reigning in the restored land.
Ezekiel 34:23
“One shepherd - Christ, the great good, chief, only shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep. My servant David - The seed of David, the beloved one, who was typified by David, and is in other places called by his name, as Jer. xxx, 9 chap. xxxvii, 24 Isaiah xxxvii, 35 Hosea iii, 5. He shall feed - Do all the office of a good and faithful shepherd, and that forever.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:23
“I will set up one Shepherd - my servant David - David, king of Israel, had been dead upwards of four hundred years; and from that time till now there never was a ruler of any kind, either in the Jewish church or state, of the name of David. This, then, must be some typical person; and from the texts marked in the margin we understand that Jesus Christ alone is meant, as both Old and New Testaments agree in this.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a prince among them: Ezekiel calls David a prince, Hebrew nasi, the title he also gives the ruler of the restored land in chapters 44 to 48. The LORD is God and David is prince. At 37:24 to 25 the same David is called both king and prince forever.
Ezekiel 34:24
“I the Lord will be their God, and my Servant David a Prince - Here we find God and his Christ are all in all in his Church, and Jesus is still Prince among them; and to him the call and qualifications of all genuine pastors belong, and from him they must be derived. And he has blotted out what is called uninterrupted succession, that every Christian minister may seek and receive credentials from himself. Here is the grand reason why the uninterrupted succession cannot be made out.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 34:25-27
a covenant of peace: The covenant of peace removes the threats, danger from wild beasts and from the shepherds' own violence, and adds material blessing, “showers in season”. The recognition formula closes the unit, tying restored harvest to the purpose running through the book, that “they will know that I am the LORD”.
Ezekiel 34:25
“And I will make with them a covenant of peace,...., Such the covenant of grace is, made with Christ from everlasting; in which Jehovah proposed terms of peace, and which Christ undertook to answer, and became the peacemaker; and from this article concerning the peace and reconciliation of men the covenant is so called; see Isa 54:10, this the Lord promises to make known to his people his flock, to show them their interest in it, and to make it good unto them; for otherwise it was made with Christ, and with them in Christ from all eternity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:25
“I will make with them a covenant of peace - The original is emphatic: וכרתי להם ברית שלום vecharatti lahem berith shalom, “And I will cut with them the peace covenant;” that is, a covenant sacrifice, procuring and establishing peace between God and man, and between man and his fellows. I need not tell the reader that the cutting refers to the ancient mode of making covenants.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the places around My hill: The hill is Zion, the temple mount at Jerusalem. The people and the places around it become a blessing, words that recall the promise to Abraham at Genesis 12:2. Showers in season meant the early rains of autumn and the late rains of spring promised at Deuteronomy 11:14.
Ezekiel 34:26
“And I will make them, and the places round about my hill, a blessing,.... Alluding either to the city of Jerusalem, and the places adjacent; or to the temple, and the houses about it. So the Targum, "I will cause them to dwell round about the house of my sanctuary;'' and so Kimchi interprets it of the temple.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:26
“The shower to come down - The Holy Spirit’s influence. There shall be showers of blessing - Light, life, joy, peace, and power shall be manifest in all the assemblies of Christ’s people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
broken the bars of their yoke: The bars of a yoke were the wooden crosspieces fastened over an animal's neck. Leviticus 26:13 uses the same picture for the exodus, when the LORD broke Israel's yoke in Egypt. Here the yoke is the rule of Babylon.
Ezekiel 34:27
“BUT do not all men know that God is the Lord? They should know it, for He is clearly to be seen in the works of Nature. Even where no Revelation has come, yet Heaven and earth and sea and the rain which brings with it fruitful seasons—filling men's hearts with food and gladness—all proclaim the Most High! But man, by wisdom, knows not God. He shuts his eyes to evidences brighter than the sun and in his willful blindness he sets up an image of wood or stone or gold or silver—bows before it and calls that his God!”
Ezekiel 34:28-31
They will no longer be prey for the nations: The chapter's final promise removes both threats named across it, the beasts and the nations, so that “They will dwell securely”. The closing line steps outside the shepherd figure, “You are My flock, the sheep of My pasture, My people, and I am your God”.
Ezekiel 34:28
“And they shall no more be a prey to the Heathen,.... To the Papists, who shall now be perished out of the land, Psa 10:16, neither shall, the beasts of the land devour them; neither that beast which rose up out of the sea, nor that which came up out of the earth, Rev 13:1, the pope, both in his secular and ecclesiastic power, being destroyed.”
Ezekiel 34:29
“And they will no longer be a prey to demonic nations; nor will the beasts of the earth devour those of whom we have spoken: but they will dwell confidently without any fear, according to the above explanation. And I will raise up for them a named offspring, or a planting of peace, which is spoken of in the Gospel: I am the true vine (John 15:1). And they will no longer be diminished by hunger on the earth.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 34:29
“I will raise up - a plant of renown - מטע לשם matta leshem, “a plantation to the name;” to the name of Christ. A Christian Church composed of men who are Christians, who have the spirit of Christ in them, and do not bear his name in vain. I believe the words might be applied to the Christian Church; but that Christ may be called a plant or plantation here, - as he is elsewhere called a branch and a rod, Isa 4:2; Isa 11:1; so Jer 23:5; Jer 35:15, - is most probable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 34:29
“He is the one Shepherd, under whom Jews and Gentiles should be one fold. (3.) He is God's servant, employed by him and for him, and doing all in obedience to his will, with an eye to his glory--his servant, to re-establish his kingdom among men and advance the interests of that kingdom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I, the LORD their God, am with them: God with them is the heart of the covenant, promised to Israel at Exodus 29:45. The recognition runs both ways, the LORD known as their God and Israel owned as His people. The exile had seemed to say He had left them.
Ezekiel 34:30
“Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them,.... Granting them his gracious and powerful presence, by all the above instances of his goodness and favour to them: and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God: and not utterly cast off, as they seemed to be; the divine Shechinah now being returned to them, which had departed from them; the "loammi" that was written on them being now wiped off from them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:30
“A famine, a famine of hearing the Word of God, will never take place on the earth under a good shepherd descended from a famous stock, whose words are acclaimed by everyone and who sows peace on the earth.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekiel 11:34.1-31patristic
the sheep of My pasture: is the language of Israel's worship at Psalm 95:7 and Psalm 100:3. The chapter's last line puts the words of the temple's songs into the LORD's own mouth. He answers His people's praise.
Ezekiel 34:31
“And ye my flock - That is, under the allegory of a flock of sheep, I point out men; under that of a pasture, my Church, and under that of a shepherd, the Messiah, through whom I am become your God. And he who is your God is אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah, the self-existent Being; the Governor and Director, as well as the Savior and Judge of men.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 34:31
“But as God had promised many things which mere "men" could not expect to realize, He shows that it is not from man's might their realization is to be looked for, but from GOD, who would perform them for His covenant-people, "His flock" [ROSENMULLER]. When we realize most our weakness and God's power and faithfulness to His covenant, we are in the fittest state for receiving His blessings.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Patrick Fairbairn and Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.