Ezekiel 34:2

Eze 34:2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe [be] to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Ver. 2. Prophesy against the shepherds.] Good shepherds they should have been, but they were naught, {Jer 23:1-4} and naught would come of them, for their maladministration.

Woe be to the shepherds of Israel.] Both to princes and priests, by whose evil government the people were so bad, as in the former chapter is fully set forth. Qualis rex, talis grex; the sheep will follow the shepherd; the common people are like a flock of cranes - as the first fly, all follow.

Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?] Such flocks especially as have golden fleeces, precious souls. Oh feed, feed, feed, saith our Saviour to Peter! {Joh 21:15} feed them for my sake, as the Syriac there hath it, rule them well, teach them well, go before them in good example, do all the offices of a faithful shepherd to them, and be instant, or stand close to the work; {2Ti 4:2} Dominus prope, the Arch-shepherd is at hand.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 34:2. Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel — The word shepherd, in the prophetical writings, comprehends both civil and ecclesiastical governors. See notes on Isa 56:11; Jer 2:8. Other writers also use the same expression; princes being called shepherds of their people, as well as those who have the immediate care of their souls: see Psa 78:71-72. Thus Homer calls Agamemnon, Ποιμεναλαων, the shepherd of the people. And as the threatenings here denounced extend to all sorts of governors, so the several sins of the princes, priests, and prophets are reproved, Eze 22:25, &c. Wo 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. The beauty of the original, רעי אשׂר היו רעים אותם, may be expressed in Latin or Greek, though not in English: — pastoribus qui pascunt semet ipsos: τοις ποιμεσιν οι ποιμαινουσιν σαυτους. 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 De Preparatione Evangelica, chap. 44., hath transcribed the whole passage, as an exact parallel to this place of Ezekiel. See Lowth.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34:2-6 What sorrow awaits you shepherds: Israel’s leaders had not taken care of the weak or gone looking for those who had wandered away and were lost. They had pursued their own interests, feeding themselves at their flock’s expense. They ruled the sheep with harshness and cruelty, recalling how the Egyptians treated the Israelites in Moses’ time (Exod 1:13-14). The neglect and abuse of these cruel shepherds had scattered the Lord’s flock across the face of the earth.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

By the shepherds he meaneth the king, the Magistrates, Priests, and Prophets.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 2. Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel] The shepherds include, first, the priests and Levites; secondly, the kings, princes, and magistrates. The flock means the whole of the people. The fat and the wool, the tithes and offerings, the taxes and imposts. The reprehensible feeding and clothing with these, as to the priests and Levites, the using these tithes and offerings, not to enable them the better to fulfil the work of the ministry, but to pamper their own bodies, and support them in an idle voluptuous life; and in reference to the state, the employing the taxes and imposts, not for the support and administration of justice and good government, but to subsidize heathen powers, and maintain their own luxury and idolatrous prodigality.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) Shepherds of Israel.—This is a common Scriptural expression for rulers, and the whole context shows that these are the persons here intended. In the passage in Jeremiah 23 they are treated under this name separately from the prophets and priests, and also in Jer_2:8 they are distinguished from prophets and priests. The name itself is a peculiarly appropriate one, and seems to have been in use throughout the East, but especially in Israel, from the time when David was taken from the care of the flocks to feed the Lord’s people. (Comp. 2Sa_5:2; Psa_78:70-71.)

That do feed themselves.—This selfishness is characteristic of the unfaithful shepherd (comp. Joh_10:1-17), and is enlarged upon in Eze_34:3-4. The history shows that for a long time it had been eminently true of the rulers, and especially of the kings of Israel.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. the shepherds] i.e. the rulers. The term is chiefly used in later writings (Jer_2:8; Jer_3:15); it occurs, however, in Zechariah 9-11, the date of which is disputed. On Zedekiah cf. ch. 17, and on his immediate predecessors, Jer_22:10-30. In general, Jeremiah 23, Jer_25:32 seq.

unto the shepherds] Possibly this is a marginal heading which has crept into the text, cf. Jer_23:9, and the reading may be, thus saith the Lord God, Woe be to … For flocks, flock.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,.... Or, "concerning" (p) them; the governors of them, as the Targum and Jarchi; their political governors, their kings, princes, and civil magistrates of every order and degree; so Kimchi interprets it of kings; and it was common with the eastern nations, and with the Greeks, to call kings shepherds; and one and the same word; in the Greek language, signifies to feed sheep, and to govern people; see Psa 78:72, also their ecclesiastical governors are intended, prophets, priests, Levites, scribes, and Pharisees; these were bad shepherds, or they would not have been prophesied against; and though they were shepherds of Israel, this must be done:

prophesy, and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: that the message to them might be the more regarded, it is ordered to be delivered in the name of the Lord; otherwise they would have been apt to have despised it, and charged the prophet with impertinence and rudeness:

woe be to the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves! that is, themselves only, and not the flock: had they fed the flock, as well as themselves, they would not have been blamed; but they took no care of the people over whom they were set only minded their own affairs, to get riches and honour, but neglected the good of the people, yea, cruelly oppressed them:

should not the shepherds feed the flocks? undoubtedly they should; it is their duty, the business of their office, so to do; kings to rule over their subjects, defend their persons and property, and secure their privileges and liberties to them; and ecclesiastical rulers, ministers of the word, should feed the flock or church of God committed to them with knowledge and understanding; see Jer 3:15.

(p) "de pastoribus", V. L. Grotius; "super pastores", Pagninus, Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Shepherds - Not priests or prophets, but rulers and kings (see the Jer 2:8 note). The most ancient title for “ruler” is a monogram which occurs on the oldest monuments discovered in the cuneiform character. In the Assyrian language it became riu (compare Hebrew רעה râ‛âh =shepherd). In the traditions of Berosus we find that Alorus, the first king in the world, received from the Divinity the title of Shepherd. The title, as well as the monogram, was preserved to the latest times of the Assyrian monarchy. While the distress and misery of the people daily in creased, the last kings of Judah exacted more and more from their subjects and lavished more and more on personal luxury and show.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shepherds. That is, princes, magistrates, chief priests, and scribes. (Challoner) --- Shepherds may lawfully take milk, (1 Corinthians ix. 7.) but the sheep and its wool belong to the master. (Worthington) --- Excellent instructions are here given for all in authority. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The shepherds; the rulers of the people, both political, as kings, magicians, and princes, and also ecclesiastical, priests and prophets.

Israel; the two tribes, and the few that out of the ten did adhere to the house of David.

Prophesy; the command is repeated to encourage and engage the prophet to his work.

Thus saith the Lord God: Ezekiel speaks, but these rulers must know it is God that speaks by him.

Woe be to the shepherds! they have been principal causes of many sins, and exemplary actors in other sins, for which many woes were threatened; many already are come, and the rest will come, in which woes these rulers shall have more than ordinary share.

Feed themselves; contrive their own ease, advantage, honour, and ambitious projects. Let the consciences of these rulers, ecclesiastical and political, speak, ought they not, as shepherds, to take care of the sheep committed to their care?

The flocks; the sheep, both whole flocks and the single sheep, whole societies and particular members of them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, etc. Our modern associations with the words, our use of terms like" the pastoral office," "the pastoral Epistles," lead us to think of the priests and prophets, the spiritual guides of the people, as being those whom the prophet has in view. In the language of the Old Testament, however, as in that of Homer ("Iliad," 1:1. 263; 2:1. 85, etc.), the shepherds of the people are always its kings and other civil rulers (1Ki_22:17; Psa_77:20 Psa_78:71; Jer_23:1-6) and those whom Ezekiel had in his thoughts were the tyrannous rulers of the house of David, like Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and their satellites. Our Christian thoughts of the word are the outcome of the leading of Joh_10:1-16 Joh_21:15-17; 1Pe_5:2-4; Act_20:28; but it is probably true that even there the original thought is still dominant. Christ is the "good Shepherd," because he is the true King. His ministers are shepherds as being officers in his kingdom. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? The question is an appeal to the universal conscience of Israel and of mankind. No shepherd was worthy of his name who did not do that which the very name implied. He that neglects that duty is simply as a hireling or a robber. (Joh_10:10, Joh_10:12)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The shepherds - The rulers of the people kings, magistrates, and princes; as also priests, and prophets. Of Israel - The two tribes, and the few out of the ten that adhere to the house of David. That feed - Contrive their own ease, advantage, and honour.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

concerning the shepherds of Israel concerning the leaders of Israel.

who were shepherding themselves [Heb. אוֹתָם,] them. They enjoyed themselves with the money of their fellows who were under them.

Do not the shepherds shepherd the flocks It is not the custom of shepherds to shepherd the flocks and not to shepherd themselves?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.