September 18
Ezekiel 34:1 — 36:21

34 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and you must say to them, to the shepherds, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have become feeders of themselves! Is it not the flock that the shepherds ought to feed? 3 The fat is what YOU eat, and with the wool YOU clothe your own selves. The plump animal is what YOU slaughter. The flock itself YOU do not feed. 4 The sickened ones YOU have not strengthened, and the ailing one YOU have not healed, and the broken one YOU have not bandaged, and the dispersed one YOU have not brought back, and the lost one YOU have not sought to find, but with harshness YOU have had them in subjection, even with tyranny. 5 And they were gradually scattered because of there being no shepherd, so that they became food for every wild beast of the field, and they continued to be scattered. 6 My sheep kept straying on all the mountains and on every high hill; and on all the surface of the earth my sheep were scattered, with no one making a search and with no one seeking to find.

7 “‘“Therefore, YOU shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah, 8 ‘“As I am alive,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “surely for the reason that my sheep became something for plunder and my sheep continued to be food for every wild beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my sheep, but the shepherds kept feeding themselves, and my own sheep they did not feed,”’ 9 therefore, YOU shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am against the shepherds, and I shall certainly ask back my sheep from their hand and make them cease from feeding [my] sheep, and the shepherds will no longer feed themselves; and I will deliver my sheep out of their mouth, and they will not become food for them.’”

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am, I myself, and I will search for my sheep and care for them. 12 According to the care of one feeding his drove in the day of his coming to be in the midst of his sheep that have been spread abroad, that is the way that I shall care for my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all the places to which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick gloom. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and collect them together from the lands and bring them in onto their soil and feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streambeds and by all the dwelling places of the land. 14 In a good pasturage I shall feed them, and on Israel’s high mountains their abiding place will come to be. There they will lie down in a good abiding place, and on a fat pasturage they will feed upon the mountains of Israel.”

15 “‘“I myself shall feed my sheep, and I myself shall make them lie down,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 16 “The lost one I shall search for, and the dispersed one I shall bring back, and the broken one I shall bandage and the ailing one I shall strengthen, but the fat one and the strong one I shall annihilate. I shall feed that one with judgment.”

17 “‘And as for YOU my sheep, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am judging between a sheep and a sheep, between the rams and the he-goats. 18 Is it such a little thing for YOU men that on the very best pasturage YOU feed but the rest of YOUR pasturages YOU should trample down with YOUR feet, and that the clear waters YOU drink but the ones left over YOU should foul by stamping with YOUR very feet? 19 And as for my sheep, on the pasture ground trampled by YOUR feet should they feed and the water befouled by the stamping of YOUR feet should they drink?”

20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to them: “Here I am, I myself, and I shall certainly judge between a plump sheep and a lean sheep, 21 for the reason that with flank and with shoulder YOU kept pushing and with YOUR horns YOU kept shoving all the sickened ones until YOU had scattered them to the outside. 22 And I will save my sheep, and they will no longer become something for plunder; and I will judge between a sheep and a sheep. 23 And I will raise up over them one shepherd, and he must feed them, even my servant David. He himself will feed them, and he himself will become their shepherd. 24 And I myself, Jehovah, will become their God, and my servant David a chieftain in the midst of them. I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.

25 “‘“And I will conclude with them a covenant of peace, and I shall certainly cause the injurious wild beast to cease out of the land, and they will actually dwell in the wilderness in security and sleep in the forests. 26 And I will make them and the surroundings of my hill a blessing, and I will cause the pouring rain to descend in its time. Pouring rains of blessing there will prove to be. 27 And the tree of the field must give its fruitage, and the land itself will give its yield, and they will actually prove to be on their soil in security. And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I break the bars of their yoke and I have delivered them out of the hand of those who had been using them as slaves. 28 And they will no longer become something to plunder for the nations; and as regards the wild beast of the earth, it will not devour them, and they will actually dwell in security, with no one to make [them] tremble.

29 “‘“And I will raise up for them a planting for a name, and they will no more become those taken away by famine in the land, and they will no longer bear the humiliation by the nations. 30 ‘And they will have to know that I, Jehovah their God, am with them and that they are my people, the house of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’

31 “‘And as regards YOU my sheep, the sheep of my pasturing, YOU are earthling men. I am YOUR God,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”


35 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountainous region of Seir and prophesy against it. 3 And you must say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you, O mountainous region of Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste, even a desolation. 4 Your cities I shall set as a devastated place, and you yourself will become a sheer desolate waste; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah, 5 for the reason that you proved to have an indefinitely lasting enmity and you kept delivering the sons of Israel over to the power of the sword, in the time of their disaster, in the time of [their] final error.”’

6 “‘Therefore as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘because it was for blood that I was preparing you, blood itself will also pursue you. Surely it was blood that you hated, and blood itself will pursue you. 7 And I shall certainly make the mountainous region of Seir a desolate waste, even a desolation, and I will cut off from it the one passing through and the one returning. 8 And I will fill its mountains with its slain ones; as for your hills and your valleys and all your streambeds, the very ones slain by [the] sword will fall in them. 9 Indefinitely lasting desolate wastes are what I shall make you, and your own cities will not be inhabited; and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.’

10 “By reason of your saying, ‘These two nations and these two lands—they will become my own, and we shall certainly take possession of each [land],’ whereas Jehovah himself happened to be right there, 11 ‘therefore as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘I will act also according to your anger and according to your jealousy that you have expressed owing to your feelings of hatred toward them; and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12 And you will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have heard all your disrespectful things that you have said concerning the mountains of Israel, saying: “They have been laid desolate. To us they have been given for food.” 13 And YOU people kept acting in great style against me with YOUR mouths, and YOU have multiplied against me YOUR words. I myself have heard [them].’

14 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘At the same time that all the earth rejoices, a desolate waste is what I shall make of you. 15 Just as there was rejoicing on your part at the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was laid desolate, the same thing I shall make of you. A desolate waste is what you will become, O mountainous region of Seir, even all Edom, all of it; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

36 “And as for you, O son of man, prophesy concerning the mountains of Israel, and you must say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah. 2 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason that the enemy has said against YOU, ‘Aha! Even the high places of old time—as a possession it has become ours!’”’

3 “Therefore prophesy, and you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason, even for the reason that there has been a lying desolate and a snapping at YOU from all sides, in order for YOU to become a possession to the remaining ones of the nations and YOU continue being talked about with the tongue and there is a bad report among people, 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah! This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streambeds and to the valleys and to the devastated places that were laid desolate and to the abandoned cities that have come to be for plunder and for ridicule to the remaining ones of the nations that are round about; 5 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Certainly in the fire of my zeal I will speak against the remaining ones of the nations and against Edom, all of it, those who have given my land to themselves as a possession with the rejoicing of all the heart, with scorn in [the] soul, for the sake of its pasture ground [and] for the plunder.’”’

6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the soil of Israel, and you must say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streambeds and to the valleys, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Look! I myself in my zeal and in my rage must speak, for the reason that humiliation by nations is what YOU have borne.”’

7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I myself have raised my hand [in an oath] that the nations that YOU have round about—they themselves will bear their own humiliation. 8 And YOU yourselves, O mountains of Israel, will give forth YOUR very own boughs and bear YOUR own fruitage for my people Israel, for they have drawn near to the point of coming in. 9 For here I am in favor of YOU, and I shall certainly turn toward YOU, and YOU will actually be cultivated and sown with seed. 10 And I will multiply upon YOU humankind, the whole house of Israel, all of it, and the cities must become inhabited, and the devastated places themselves will be rebuilt. 11 Yes, I will multiply upon YOU humankind and animalkind, and they will certainly multiply and become fruitful, and I shall actually cause YOU to be inhabited as in YOUR former condition and I will do more good than in YOUR initial state; and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah. 12 And upon YOU I will cause humankind to walk, even my people Israel, and they must take possession of YOU, and YOU must become a hereditary possession to them, and YOU will not bereave them again of any more children.’”

13 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that there are those saying to YOU: “A devourer of humankind is what you yourself are, and [a land] bereaving your nations of children is what you have become,”’ 14 ‘therefore humankind you will no more devour, and your nations you will no more bereave of children,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 15 ‘And I shall cause no further humiliating talk by the nations to be heard concerning you, and reproach by peoples you will bear no more, and your nations you will no more cause to stumble,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

16 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 17 “Son of man, the house of Israel [were] dwelling upon their soil, and they kept making it unclean with their way and with their dealings. Like the uncleanness of menstruation their way has become before me. 18 And I proceeded to pour out my rage upon them on account of the blood that they had poured out upon the land, which [land] they had made unclean with their dungy idols. 19 And I proceeded to scatter them among the nations, so that they were dispersed among the lands. According to their way and according to their dealings I judged them. 20 So they came in to the nations where they came in, and people proceeded to profane my holy name in saying with reference to them, ‘These are the people of Jehovah, and from his land they have gone out.’ 21 And I shall have compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel have profaned among the nations where they have come in.”