Ezekiel 34:15
in Ezekiel 34I will tend My flock and make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah.
KJV
I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.
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This verse in Ezekiel 34
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3528: “A Promise and a Providence” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
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.
This site's exposition
I Myself will search for My flock
on Ezekiel 34:11-16
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.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Lift up your eyes to the mountains, by all means, from where help shall come to you—but pay attention to him saying, I myself will be the shepherd.
(Verse 11 onwards) For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his dispersed sheep (or when there is darkness and clouds among his separated sheep), so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
But here he is ordered to make a difference between some and others of them, to separate between the precious and the vile and then to give them a promise of the Messiah, by whom this distinction should be effectually made, partly at his first coming (for for judgment he came into this world, John ix.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
I will feed my flock,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3528: “A Promise and a Providence” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
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. Yet the Lord will seek them till His eyes of mercy shall rest upon them and His hands of power shall grasp them. If the Lord has an elect soul in the center of Africa, He will find him out. Or should there be one for whom Jesus died who frequents the house that is infamous and has plunged into the most detestable sin, yet the Lord will not lose him! Having set His heart upon him, He will seek him till He finds him and follow him up till He reclaims him. You remember one of the Lord's sheep—a woman who had forsaken the paths of virtue. She had had five husbands and was then living with one who was not her husband. Yet He must go through Samaria to meet with her! He must—such was the Divine necessity that this sheep, which had wandered as far as it well could, should be brought back! Cheer up! Be of good courage, preacher of the Word. You may not find the sheep, but your Master will! Take heart, you that wait upon the Lord in prayer—you may see some of your agencies fail and success may not wait upon all your efforts, but God's purposes must stand—He will do all His pleasure and at the last it shall be seen that not a single sheep was left for want of being sought out. Nor is it enough to seek the sheep and to find them—they must be delivered from the dangers into which they have fallen. There is a promise to this effect.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲנִ֨י | ʾani | I | H589 → | 874 times |
| אֶרְעֶ֤ה | ʾereh | I will shepherd | H7462 → | 177 times |
| צֹאנִי֙ | tzoni | flock my | H6629 → | 274 times |
| וַאֲנִ֣י | vaani | and I | H589 → | 874 times |
| אַרְבִּיצֵ֔ם | ʾarbitzem | I will make lie down them | H7257 → | 30 times |
| נְאֻ֖ם | neum | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| אֲדֹנָ֥י | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| יְהוִֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3069 → | 306 times |
אֲנִ֨יI
ʾaniH589 →874 times
אֶרְעֶ֤הI will shepherd
ʾerehH7462 →177 times
צֹאנִי֙flock my
tzoniH6629 →274 times
וַאֲנִ֣יand I
vaaniH589 →874 times
אַרְבִּיצֵ֔םI will make lie down them
ʾarbitzemH7257 →30 times
נְאֻ֖ם[the] utterance of
neumH5002 →376 times
אֲדֹנָ֥י[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
יְהוִֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3069 →306 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 3:15Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 23:4
I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.
- Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
- Ephesians 4:11–12
And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
- Ezekiel 34:23
I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
- Isaiah 30:20–21
The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.
- Jeremiah 23:4
Through
John 21:15When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:11
He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 John 4:19
We love because He first loved us.
- Romans 15:1
We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
- Isaiah 40:11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 46:25; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Ezekiel; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3528: “A Promise and a Providence” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.