Ezekiel 34-36

Ezekiel 34

¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn't the shepherds feed the sheep?

³You eat the fat, and you clothe yourself with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don't feed the sheep.

⁴You haven't strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought back that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor you have ruled over them.

⁵They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.

⁶My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was none who searched or sought.

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

⁸As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn't feed my sheep;

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:

¹⁰Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.

¹¹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.

¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

¹⁴I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.

¹⁷As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.

¹⁸Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet?

¹⁹As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh to them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;

²²therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³I 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.

²⁴I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

²⁶I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.

²⁷The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them.

²⁸They shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the animals of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.

²⁹I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more.

³⁰They shall know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh.

³¹You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord Yahweh.

Ezekiel 35

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

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

³and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.

⁴I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁵Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;

⁶therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.

⁷Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.

⁸I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword.

⁹I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁰Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:

¹¹therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you.

¹²You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour.

¹³You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.

¹⁴Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.

¹⁵As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

Ezekiel 36

¹You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.

²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the enemy has said against you, Aha! and, The ancient high places are ours in possession;

³therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;

⁴therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all around;

⁵therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.

⁶Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations:

⁷therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I have sworn, [saying], Surely the nations that are around you, they shall bear their shame.

⁸But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come.

⁹For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn into you, and you shall be tilled and sown;

¹⁰and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built;

¹¹and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better [to you] than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹²Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.

¹³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;

¹⁴therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your nation any more, says the Lord Yahweh;

¹⁵neither will I let you hear any more the shame of the nations, neither shall you bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shall you cause your nation to stumble any more, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁷Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

¹⁸Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols;

¹⁹and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

²⁰When they came to the nations, where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of Yahweh, and are gone forth out of his land.

²¹But I had respect for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, where they went.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I don't do [this] for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.

²³I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

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

²⁵I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

²⁶I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.

²⁸You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.

³⁰I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

³¹Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

³²Nor for your sake do I [this], says the Lord Yahweh, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.

³³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built.

³⁴The land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all who passed by.

³⁵They shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.

³⁶Then the nations that are left around you shall know that I, Yahweh, have built the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and I will do it.

³⁷Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.

³⁸As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.