1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them, the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been tending only themselves! Is it not the flock the shepherds should tend?
3 You eat the fat, you dress in the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not tend the flock.
4 You have not built up the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bandaged the injured, you have not brought back the strays, you have not searched for the lost; instead you have ruled over them with force and brutality.
5 So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd; scattered, they became food for all the animals of the field.
6 My sheep strayed across all the mountains and over every high hill; over the whole face of the earth my flock was scattered, and no one went looking or searched for them.
7 "So, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
8 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, because my flock has become prey, my flock has become food for all the animals of the field for lack of a shepherd, and my shepherds have not looked for my flock, but the shepherds have tended themselves and not tended my flock,
9 so, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
10 Thus says the Lord GOD: I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my flock from their hand and stop them from tending the flock; the shepherds will no longer tend themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
11 "For thus says the Lord GOD: Here I am; I myself will search for my flock and look after them.
12 As a shepherd looks after his flock on the day he is with his scattered sheep, so I will look after my flock; I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered on a day of cloud and gloom.
13 I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the lands, and bring them to their own soil. I will tend them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and in every inhabited place in the land.
14 I will tend them in good pasture, and their grazing land will be on Israel's high mountains; there they will lie down in good grazing land and feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will tend my flock and give them rest, declares the Lord GOD.
16 I will search for the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured and build up the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will tend them with justice.
17 "As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats.
18 Is it not enough for you to graze on the good pasture, that you must trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Or to drink the clear water, that you must muddy the rest with your feet?
19 And my flock has to eat what your feet have trampled and drink what your feet have muddied.
20 "So thus says the Lord GOD to them: Here I am; I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder and butt all the weak ones with your horns until you have scattered them far and wide,
22 I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be prey; I will judge between one sheep and another.
23 I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.
24 I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.
25 "I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts, so that they can live safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
26 I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing; I will send down the rain at its proper time, showers of blessing they will be.
27 The trees of the field will give their fruit and the land its produce, and they will be safe on their soil. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.
28 They will no longer be plunder for the nations, and the animals of the land will not eat them; they will live in safety, with no one to frighten them.
29 I will raise up for them a planting of renown; they will no longer be carried off by famine in the land or bear the taunts of the nations anymore.
30 Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.
31 You are my flock, the flock of my pasture; you are men, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD."