Ezekiel 34
PATGod reproves the ill conduct of the governors of the Jewish nation, both civil and ecclesiastical; and promises a general restoration of his people, and their happy condition under the government of Ihe Messias, their king. and my people are scattered here and there: some’are fled for refuge into foreign countries; (see Jer. xl. 11.) others are carried captives by their enemies, who, as so many beasts of prey, have spoiled and devoured them. (Compare Isa. lvi. 9. Jer. xii. 9.)
Ezekiel 34:2
PROPHESY against the shepherds of Israel. The word shepherd, in the prophetical writings, comprehends both civil and ecclesiastical governors: (see the notes upon Isa. lvi. 11. Jer. ii.8. xxiii. 1.) princes being called shepherds of their people, as well as those who have the immediate care of their souls. (See Psal. Ixxviii. 71, 72.) To the same sense Homer calls Agamemnon, iroifilva Xaiov, the shepherd of the people* And as the threatcnings here denounced, extend to all sorts of governors; so the several sins of the princes, priests, and prophets, are reproved, xxii. 25, &c. (Compare likewise xlv. 8, 9.) Woe to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves.] That regard their own profit and advantage, not the good of the people committed to their charge. Plato, in the first book of his Commonwealth, describing the office of a magistrate, saith, " He should look upon himself as sustaining the office of a shepherd, that makes it his chief business to. take care of his flock; not as if he were going to a feast to fill himself and satiate his appetite, or to a market to make what gain he can to himself/’ Eusebius, in his twelfth book dc Praeparatione Evangelica, cap. 44. hath transcribed the whole passage as an exact parallel to this place of Ezekicl.
Ezekiel 34:3
Ye eat the fat. Or, the milk, as the LXX. render it. The Hebrew w r ords, halab, milk, and heleb,fat, differ only in their points; so that the ancient versions take them promiscuously one for the other. (See xxv. 4.) Ye kill them that are fed.] Them that are fat ye design for the slaughter, wherewith to feed yourselves: (see Zech. x. 5.) L e. they took away the lives of the wealthy and substantial, that they might enrich themselves with their estates. (See xxii. 25. 27.)
Ezekiel 34:4
The diseased have ye not strengthened, &c. Ye have not applied proper remedies to the wants and neccs-. sities of the people committed to your charge. The magistrates have not took care to relieve the needy, and defend the oppressed. The priests and the prophets have notJ>een diligent in giving the people proper instructions, in reducing those that are in error, or in comforting the disconsolate. Neither have ye bound np that which ivas broken.] Ye have not given ease to the afflicted and miserable. A metaphor taken from surgeons binding up wounds. (Compare Isa. lxi. 1.) Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, &c] Or, which was gone astray, as the word nid~ dakuh is translated, Deut. xxii. 1. Ye have not sought by good instructions to reduce those that have been seduced into error; or to reclaim those that are ready to be lost and perish in their sins. (Compare Matt.ix. 3(5. xviii. 11.) But with force and cruelty have ye ruled them.] You have tried to reduce them to their duty by the rough methods of cruelty and compulsion, not by the gentle way of reason and argument. In like manner the methods of instruction and good example are particularly recommended to the pastors of tho Christian church, 1 Pet. v. 3. 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.
Ezekiel 34:5
And they ivere scattered, abroad because there is no shepherd, &c.j By reason of these neglects of the governors, the whole frame of the government is dissolved,
Ezekiel 34:6
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, See. As sheep,’ when there is nobody to look after them, wander from one mountain and hill to another; so my people have been forced to leave their habitations, and fly to any place where they might hope for protection. (Compare vii. 10. and see the note upon Jer. xiii. 16.) x And none didseekor search after them.~] Their rulers took no care of my.people while they had power and authority; and now I have displaced them for their misdemeanours, and there is nobody left whose office it is to take any farther care of my people. (See ver. 10.)
Ezekiel 34:10
I will require my flock at their hands, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. I will require a severe account of their kings and princes, their priests and prophets, of the damage my people have sustained through their ill management; and I will deprive them of that honour and pre-eminence which they have made such ill use of, as I have already displaced Zedekiah, and the princes, priests, and others, that were in authority under him.
Ezekiel 34:12
So will I seek out my sheep, and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I will bring them home from their several dispersions, whither they have been driven in the dark and dismal time of the destruction of their country, and their own captivity. (Compare xxx.3.)
Ezekiel 34:13
And I will bring them out from the people, &c. This prophecy may in some degree have been fulfilled in the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity: but seems still to look farther, even to the general restoration of the whole nation; which most of the prophets foretell shall come to pass in the latter days. (Compare xi.’ 17. xx. 41. xxviii. 25. xxxvi. 24. xxxvii. 21. xxxviii. 8. xxxix. 27.)
Ezekiel 34:14
Upon the high mountains of Israel. See vi. 2. There’shall they lie in a good fold, &c] The expressions denote plenty and security. (Compare Isa. lxv. 10. Jer. xxxiii. 12. Hos. ii. 18. Zeph. iii. 18.)
Ezekiel 34:16
1 will seek that which was lost, &c. The Messias, whom I will set over. them, (see ver. 23.) shall faithfully discharge all the offices of a shepherd towards them, which their former pastors have neglected, ver. 4. (Compare Isa.’ xl. 11. Ixi. 1. Matt. xv. 24. xviii.ll. John x. 11.) Bat 1 will destroy the fat and the strong.] Those that oppress and domineer over the weak. (See ver. 20,21. compare xxxix. 18. Amos iv. 1.) I will feed them with judgment.] Or, tvith discretion; i.e. I will deal with each of them according to their deserts, and make a distinction between the fat and lean cattle. (See ver. 18. 20.)
Ezekiel 34:17
Between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats. The Hebrew runs thus, Between the small cattle, and the cattle of rams, and he-goats; between the weak and the strong cattle, i. e. between the rich and the poor, as the Chaldee paraphrase explains the senso upon ver. 20. *
Ezekiel 34:18
Seemeth it a small thing unto you, to have eaten zip the good pasture, &c. This reproof may fitly be applied vol. iv. to those great persons who take no care that the poor may enjoy the.benefit of their superfluities; but rather let them be thrown away and perish, than they will be at the trouble of seeing them disposed of for the good of those that want.
Ezekiel 34:21
Because ye have thrust tvith side and shoulder, &c. In pursuance of this comparison, the oppressors of the weak are commonly styled in Scripture by the names of oxen, bullocks, rams, and he-goats. (See Psal. xxii. - 12. lxviii. 31. Dan. viii. 3.5.)
Ezekiel 34:23
And I tvill set up one shepherd over them — even my serva7it David. The Messias is often described under the character of a shepherd, both in the Old and New Testament. (See the note on ver. 16.) And the title may be applied to him with respect to his office of king, as well as that of priest and prophet. (See the note on ver. 2.) He is elsewhere styled by the name of David, as being the person in whom all the promises made to David were fulfilled. (See Isa. Iv. 3, 4. Jer. xxx. 9. Hos. iii. 5.) [The expression may likewise allude to David’s first employment, which was that of a shepherd.] He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.] This prophecy was remarkably fulfilled when Christ, by the preaching of the gospel, gathered in one the children of God ivhich were scattered abroad, (John xi. 52. Eph. i. 10.) among whom were many of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, (Matt. x. 6.) But it will receive a farther completion at the general conversion of the Jews, when the. time, will come that they shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, (Matt, xxiiii. 37.) And this signal event will usher iu or complete the fulness of the gentiles. (See Rom. xi. 12. 15. 25. 32.)
Ezekiel 34:24
And I the Lord will be their God. I will renew my covenant with them, and receive them again into my protection. (See ver. 30. xxxvii. 27. Lev. xvi/12. and the notes upon Jer. xxx. 22.) And my servant David a prince among them.] See the note on xxxvii. 22.
Ezekiel 34:25
And I will make with them a covenant of peace. As I will be at peace with them, so I will give them the blessing of outward peace, and will protect them from the annoyance of all their enemies, from persecution and out-, ward violence. - (See Jer. xxiii. 6.) And will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land.] This may be meant of freedom from persecution by infidels i and strangers. (Compare ver. 28.) Such a security is cjsewhere expressed by making a covenant for them with the beasts of the field. (See Lev. xxvi. 6. Job v. 23. Isa.xxxv. 9. Hos. ii. 18.) The words are likewise capable of a literal interpretation, importing, that as God had threatened after the desolation of the land, wild beasts should overrun. it, and devour the few inhabitants that were left; (see v. 17. xxxiii. 27.) so upon the rcpeopling of the country, those ravagers should forsake it.
Ezekiel 34:26
And I will make them, and the places roundabout my hill, a blessing. I will there give remarkable instances of my favour, and the happiness which accompanies it. (See Gen. xii. 2. Isa. xix. 24. Zech. viii. 13.) God’s hill is the same with his holy mountain, xx. 40. And there shall be showers ofblessi?ig.] Such as shall produce all sorts of plenty. (Compare Mai. iii. 10.)
Ezekiel 34:27
And the tree of the field shall yield herfrtnt,$g>c.]