Ezekiel 34-36

Ezekiel 34

¹Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?

³You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.

⁴You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

⁵They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts.

⁶My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

⁸‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because My flock lacks a shepherd and has become prey and food for every wild beast, and because My shepherds did not search for My flock but fed themselves instead,

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD!’

¹⁰This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand from them My flock and remove them from tending the flock, so that they can no longer feed themselves. For I will deliver My flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.’

¹¹For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out.

¹²As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land.

¹⁴I will feed them in good pasture, and the lofty mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing land; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I will tend My flock and make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁶I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’

¹⁷This is what the Lord GOD says to you, My flock: ‘I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats.

¹⁸Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear waters? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?

¹⁹Why must My flock feed on what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have muddied?’

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Since you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak ones with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,

²²I will save My flock, and they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.

²⁴I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

²⁶I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing.

²⁷The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them from the hands that enslaved them.

²⁸They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not consume them. They will dwell securely, and no one will frighten them.

²⁹And I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

³⁰Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,’ declares the Lord GOD.

³¹‘You are My flock, the sheep of My pasture, My people, and I am your God,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 35

¹Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it,

³and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Mount Seir. I will stretch out My hand against you and make you a desolate waste.

⁴I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

⁵Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,

⁶therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, it will pursue you.

⁷I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and will cut off from it those who come and go.

⁸I will fill its mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills, in your valleys, and in all your ravines.

⁹I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹⁰Because you have said, ‘These two nations and countries will be ours, and we will possess them,’ even though the LORD was there,

¹¹therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will treat you according to the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred against them, and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you.

¹²Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’

¹³You boasted against Me with your mouth and multiplied your words against Me. I heard it Myself!

¹⁴This is what the Lord GOD says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.

¹⁵As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 36

¹“And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD.

²This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

³therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,

⁴therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you.

⁵Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

⁶Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations.

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I have sworn with an uplifted hand that surely the nations around you will endure reproach of their own.

⁸But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and bear fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home.

⁹For behold, I am on your side; I will turn toward you, and you will be tilled and sown.

¹⁰I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

¹¹I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹²Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children.

¹³For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’

¹⁴therefore you will no longer devour men or deprive your nation of its children, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁵I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁶Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁷“Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity.

¹⁸So I poured out My wrath upon them because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols.

¹⁹I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

²⁰And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land.’

²¹But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had gone.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.

²³I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.

²⁴For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land.

²⁵I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

²⁶I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

²⁸Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.

²⁹I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine upon you.

³⁰I will also make the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer bear reproach among the nations on account of famine.

³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

³²It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

³³This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

³⁴The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through.

³⁵Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and destroyed are now fortified and inhabited.’

³⁶Then the nations around you that remain will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was destroyed, and I have replanted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.

³⁷This is what the Lord GOD says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like a flock.

³⁸Like the numerous flocks for sacrifices at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”