Ezekiel 34:11-30

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

God, the True Shepherd

¹¹ For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep and will sort them out.^{(A) 12} As shepherds sort out their flocks when they are among scattered sheep,^[a] so I will sort out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.^{(B) 13} I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land.^{(C) 14} I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.^{(D) 15} I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.^(E)

¹⁷ As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats:^{(F) 18} Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet and drink what you have fouled with your feet?

²⁰ Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Because you pushed with flank and shoulder and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, ²² I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged, and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³ I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd.^{(G) 24} And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.^(H)

²⁵ I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild animals from the land, so that they may live in the wild and sleep in the woods securely.^{(I) 26} I will make them and the region around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.^{(J) 27} The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them.^{(K) 28} They shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid.^{(L) 29} I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land and no longer suffer the insults of the nations.^{(M) 30} They shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God.