¹Then the word of the Lord came to me and said, ²“Son of Adam, prophesy to the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to these shepherds, ‘This is what my Lord the Lord says: «Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been tending themselves. Is it not the flock that shepherds tend? ³You eat the fatness, and you clothe yourselves with the wool. You sacrifice the fattened animal, but you do not tend the flock. ⁴You have not strengthened the ailing, nor have you nursed the sick, nor have you bound up the crushed, nor have you brought back her who was driven out, nor have you sought that which was getting lost. But you have ruled over them with force and with rigour. ⁵And they were scattered for want of a shepherd, and they were food for all kinds of wild animals, so they were scattered. ⁶My flock has gone astray in all the mountains and on every high hill, and my flock has been scattered all over the surface of the earth, with no-one seeking them and no-one searching for them. ⁷So, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. ⁸As I live, says the Lord, the Lord, it is most definitely the case that my flock is a prey, and my flock has been food for all kinds of wild animals, for want of a shepherd, and my shepherds did not seek my flock, but the shepherds tended themselves and did not tend my flock. ⁹So, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.» ¹⁰This is what my Lord the Lord says: «I am here against the shepherds, and I will demand my flock back from their charge, and I will stop them from tending the flock, and the shepherds will no longer tend them, and I will rescue my flock from their mouth, and they will not be food for them any longer.» ¹¹For this is what my Lord the Lord says: «Here I am, my very self, and I will seek my flock and search for them, ¹²and as a shepherd tending his flock searches when he is among his flock when they are scattered, so I will search for my flock, and I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. ¹³And I will bring them out from the nations, and I will gather them from the various countries, and I will bring them to their own country, and I will tend them on the mountains of Israel, at the watercourses and at all inhabitable places in the land. ¹⁴I will tend them on good pasture land, and their fold will be on the mountains of the heights of Israel. There they will lie in a good fold, and they will feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I will tend my flock, and I will give them somewhere to lie down, says the Lord, the Lord. ¹⁶I will seek that which is getting lost, and I will bring back what is being driven out, and I will bind up what is crushed, and I will give strength to the sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will tend them with justice.» ’ ¹⁷And as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord, the Lord, says: ‘I am about to judge between flock animal and flock animal, between rams and he-goats. ¹⁸Is it a small matter to you that you feed yourselves on good pasture, but you trample on the rest of your pastures with your feet? And that you yourselves drink from a pool of water, but you stir up the rest of the water with your feet? ¹⁹So my flock have to feed on the pasture trampled by your feet, and drink from the water stirred up by your feet. ²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord, says to them: «I myself am here, and I will judge between fatted flock animals and lean flock animals, ²¹because you have pushed with your side and your shoulder, and you have butted all the ailing with your horns until you had scattered them widely. ²²And I will save my flock, and they will no longer be a prey, and I will judge between flock animal and flock animal. ²³And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will tend them – my servant David. He will tend them, and he will be their shepherd. ²⁴And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a leader among them. I, the Lord, have spoken. ²⁵And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will banish beasts of prey from the land, and they will live in the desert in security and sleep in the forests. ²⁶And I will make them and the vicinity of my hill a blessing, and I will bring rain in its season – there will be rains of blessing. ²⁷And the wild tree will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be on their land in security, and they will know that I am the Lord when I break their yoke beams and save them from the grip of those who exploit them. ²⁸And they will no longer be a prey to the Gentiles, nor will the animals of the land devour them, but they will live in security, with no-one to make them afraid. ²⁹And I will establish a plantation for them of renown, and they will no longer be gathered to their fathers through famine in the land, and they will no longer bear the reproach of the Gentiles. ³⁰And they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they will be my people, the house of Israel, says the Lord, the Lord. ³¹And you, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are Adamic seed, and I am your God, says the Lord, the Lord.» ’ ”