Ezekiel 34:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הָֽרֹעִ֔ים

râʻâh

H7462

“the · shepherding”

Particle, Definite Article + Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 164× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 4:2

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2185 , 2186

to pasture, tend, graze, feed - (Qal) - to tend, pasture - to shepherd - of ruler, teacher (figuratively) - of people as flock (figuratively) - shepherd, herdsman (substantive) - to feed, graze - of cows, sheep etc (literal) - of idolater, Israel as flock (figuratively) - (Hiphil) shepherd, shepherdess - to associate with, be a friend of (meaning probable) - (Qal) to associate with - (Hithpael) to be companions - (Piel) to be a special friend

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

5: words
5: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
2 nouns
1 adverb

Verb forms

הָֽרֹעִ֔ים Qal · Participle Active
שִׁמְע֖וּ Qal · Imperative

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 8 words from the Hebrew and 5 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 5 Hebrew tokens and 3 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Ezekiel 34:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

לָכֵן֙ הָֽרֹעִ֔ים שִׁמְע֖וּ דְּבַר יְהוָֽה

therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 34:9 Septuagint · lemma form

ἀντί οὗτος ποιμήν

For this cause, O shepherds,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

בְּכֵן פַּרְנָסַיָא רַשִׁיעַיָא תּוּבוּ לְאוֹרַיְתָא וַאֲנָא עֲתִיד לְרַחָמָא עֲלֵיכוֹן אֲצִיתוּ לְאוּלְפַן אוֹרַיְתָא וְקַבִּילוּ פִּתְגָמָא דַיָי:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Ezekiel 34:9 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Eze 34:9 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

Ver. 9. Therefore, O ye shepherds.] See Eze 34:7-8.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds,.... His heart was against them; his hand was against them; his face was against them, to cut them off. The Targum is,

"behold, I will send my fury upon the governors;''

and there was good reason for it, they were against him and his glory, against his flock, his people, his cause, and interest; sad it is for any to have God against them, and to be against God; for none ever hardened themselves against him and prospered, Job 9:4,

and I will require my flock at their hand; the full tale of them that have been committed to their care, and will punish them for the neglect of them; their blood, their life, and the loss of them, I will require at their hands; thus he punished Zedekiah and his princes, and the priests and prophets:

and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; take the kingdom from them, as he did from Zedekiah; abolish the ecclesiastical hierarchy among the Jews; cut off three shepherds in one month, the priests, prophets, and scribes of the people; and put the flock into other hands, the apostles and ministers of the Gospel:

neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; enrich themselves with the substance of the people:

for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them; who, instead of being shepherds to feed the flock, were no other than wolves in sheep's clothing, and ravenous lions and bears, which devoured the flock; but this they should do no longer.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Yahweh continues giving Ezekiel his message to the leaders of Israel.

General Information:

Yahweh continues speaking of the people of Israel as if they were a flock of sheep and the leaders of Israel as if they were shepherds who have not cared for the flock. (See: Metaphor)

hear the word of Yahweh

"listen to Yahweh's message." This is an idiom that is used to introduce a special message from God. (See: Idiom)

The Lord Yahweh says this

This can be stated in the first person. AT: "I, the Lord Yahweh, say this" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

Behold!

The word "Behold" here adds emphasis to what follows. AT: "Indeed!"

I am against the shepherds

"I am opposed to the shepherds"

I will require my flock from their hand

The phrase "require ... from their hand" is an idiom that means to hold or consider someone responsible for something. AT: "I will hold them responsible for all the bad things that happen to my flock" or "I will punish them for all the bad things they let happen to my flock" (See: Idiom)

I will dismiss them from shepherding the flock

"I will not let them shepherd the flock any longer" or "I will not let them be the shepherds of the flock any longer"

shepherd themselves

"feed and take care of themselves"

from their mouths

Here "mouths" represent eating. AT: "so they cannot eat them" (See: Metonymy)

my flock will no longer be food for them

"the shepherds will no longer eat the sheep and the goats of my flock"

translationWords

hand

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 5 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râʻâh (“to shepherd”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word râʻâh carries the sense “to shepherd.” How does it shape the verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«הָֽרֹעִ֔ים» is a Qal Participle Active verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 5 Hebrew ↔ 3 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 5 words in this verse.