Ezekielchapter 34
31 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
It stands in scene D of the chapter, verses 23 to 31.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The shepherds of Israel fed themselves and not the flock, eating the fat, clothing themselves with the wool, killing the fatlings, while the sick were not healed, the broken not bound up, and the lost not sought. So the sheep were scattered and became meat to every beast. Against them stands the divine reversal: 'Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out… I will feed them in a good pasture.' Fat sheep that shove the lean with shoulder and horn are judged. Then the promise underneath John 10: 'I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David,' with a covenant of peace and showers of blessing.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 34 falls in Restoration promised (chapters 33–37). The watchman's charge renewed; false shepherds denounced (34); the new heart and new spirit (36:26–27); the valley of dry bones (37); one stick, one shepherd.
False shepherds. Judgment on the shepherds who have fed themselves; the LORD himself will shepherd his sheep and set up one shepherd, David.
Before it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32. After it: Gog and Magog, chapters 38–39.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 34The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- The Code of Hammurabi , prologue
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Shepherds who fed themselves and not the flock
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: The oracle turns from the land to Israel's own leaders, addressed under the shepherd-and-flock image common across the ancient Near East and rooted in Israel's own 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 34:2, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
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
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
2. (vv. 3-6)
a.Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with 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, ruling with force and cruelty instead of care. The consequence named is not incidental, they were scattered, because there is no shepherd, laying the exile itself at the leaders' door rather than the people's alone.
Ezekiel 34:3, 2 voices
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.”
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
Ezekiel 34:4, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 34:5, 2 voices
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
Ezekiel 34:5
“Every one is ready to seize a waif and stray. Some went abroad and begged, some went abroad and traded, and thus the country became thin of inhabitants, and was weakened and impoverished, and wanted hands both in the fields of corn and in the fields of battle, both in harvest and in war: My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 34:6, 2 voices
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 34:6
“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
3. (vv. 7-10)
a.Therefore, ye shepherds: The double summons, hear the word of the Lord, frames the sentence: God declares himself against the shepherds and will require my flock at their hand, removing them from the office they abused. The verdict forecloses gradual reform; they will cease from feeding the flock entirely, and the sheep are delivered out of their mouth rather than left in it.
Ezekiel 34:7, 2 voices
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.”
Ezekiel 34:7
“Those that will not hear the word of the Lord giving them their direction shall be made to hear the word of the Lord reading them their doom. How much displeased God is at the shepherds. Their crimes are repeated,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 34:8, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 34:9, 2 voices
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
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.''”
Ezekiel 34:10, 1 voice
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
B. I myself will search for my sheep
1. (vv. 11-16)
a.search my sheep, and seek them out: What the shepherds failed to do, God announces he will do himself, in the same terms the indictment used: seeking the scattered, binding the broken, strengthening the sick, and feeding them in a good pasture restored to the land. The unit ends on a harder note the pastoral language can obscure, I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment, naming that some within the flock itself had grown strong by preying on the weak.
Ezekiel 34:11, 1 voice
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.”
Ezekiel 34:12, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 34:13, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 34:14, 1 voice
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, 1 voice
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, 2 voices
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
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
C. Judging between the fat sheep and the lean
1. (vv. 17-22)
a.between the rams and the he 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, thrusting with side and shoulder to push the weaker sheep aside. The individual accountability pressed here runs alongside the argument chapter 18 already made at length, that guilt and its judgment fall on the one who commits it.
Ezekiel 34:17, 2 voices
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 34:17
“Another promise that God would in the fulness of time send the Messiah, to be the great and good Shepherd of the sheep, who should redress all grievances and set every thing to rights with the flock,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 34:18, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 34:19, 1 voice
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.”
Ezekiel 34:20, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 34:21, 1 voice
Ezekiel 34:21
“Note, It is a barbarous thing to add affliction to the afflicted. Perhaps these rams and he-goats are designed to represent the scribes and Pharisees, for they are such troublers of the church as Christ himself must come to deliver it from,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 34:22, 1 voice
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
D. One shepherd, David, and a covenant of peace
1. (vv. 23-24)
a.I will set up one shepherd over them: The promise culminates in a single figure, my servant David, raised over a flock no longer scattered among failed shepherds. The readings differ on how directly to take the name: the older Jewish and Christian reading takes David as the coming Messiah of David's line, the reading the church has historically carried into John 10's good shepherd, while a minority reading has looked for a literal, raised David reigning in the restored land. The exposition states the positions and stops.
Ezekiel 34:23, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 34:24, 1 voice
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
2. (vv. 25-27)
a.a covenant of peace: The covenant of peace removes the threats named earlier in the chapter, danger from wild beasts and from the shepherds' own violence, and adds material blessing, showers in due season on ground that had been wilderness. The recognition formula closes the unit, tying restored harvest to the same purpose running through the whole book, that the flock shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 34:25, 2 voices
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.”
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
Ezekiel 34:26, 2 voices
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.”
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
Ezekiel 34:27, 1 voice
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!”
3. (vv. 28-31)
a.no more be a prey to the heathen: The chapter's final promise removes both threats named across it, the beasts of the land and the heathen, so the flock dwells safely and is no more consumed with hunger. The closing line steps outside the shepherd figure to name what it described all along, ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, the commentators reading the shift as a reminder that the image describes covenant relationship rather than actual likeness to sheep.
Ezekiel 34:28, 1 voice
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, 3 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 34:30, 2 voices
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
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.”
Ezekiel 34:31, 2 voices
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
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
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 34. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 12 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Charles Spurgeon; Gregory of Nazianzus, IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT TO PONTUS, ORATION 2:117; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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