Ezekiel 34:20

He makes no further mention of the he-goats. He mentioned them once, so that we would know they exist. He knows them well. After that he speaks as if all are sheep.

(Verse 17 onwards) But you, my flock (or sheep), this says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between the sheep, and between rams and goats. Was it not enough for you to graze on good pastures? Moreover, you trampled the remnants of your pastures with your feet, and when you drank the purest water, you disturbed the rest with your feet. And my sheep, which were trampled by your feet, were fed, and those feet of yours that disturbed, they drank.

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,

Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them,.... To the rams and he goats of the flock, that use the pastures and defile the waters after this manner, and make them unfit for the lesser cattle; or that use the poor people of God after this sort: behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.

Yahweh having promised to be a Ruler of His people, the administration of the divine kingdom is now described, as carried on by One King, the representative of David, whose dominion should fulfill all the promises originally made to the man after God’s own heart. Ezekiel does not so much add to, as explain and develope, the original promise; and as the complete fulfillment of the spiritual blessings, which the prophets were guided to proclaim, was manifestly never realized in any temporal prosperity of the Jews, and never could and never can be realized in any earthly kingdom, we recognize throughout the Sacred Volume the one subject of all prophecy - the Righteous King, the Anointed Prince, the Son and the Lord of David. Eze 34:23 One shepherd - One, as ruling over an undivided people, the distinction between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah having been done away. My servant David - David was a fit type of the True King because he was a true and faithful servant of Yahweh. That which David was partially and imperfectly, Christ is in full perfection (compare Mat 12:18; Joh 5:30; Heb 10:7.) Eze 34:26 The blessings here foretold are especially those of the old covenant. The wilderness (or, pasture-country) and the woods, the places most exposed to beasts and birds of prey, become places of security. Under the new covenant Sion and the hills around are representative of God’s Church; and temporal blessings are typical of the blessings showered down upon Christ’s Church by Him who has vanquished the powers of evil. Eze 34:29 A plant - Equivalent to the “Branch,” under which name Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesy of the Messiah. The contrast in this verse to hunger seems to favor the idea that the “plant” was for food, i. […]