¹ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy; and say unto them, unto the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?

³ Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; ye kill them that are fattened: [but] ye feed not the flock.

⁴ The weak have ye not strengthened, nor have ye healed the sick, and ye have not bound up [what was] broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought for that which was lost; but with harshness and with rigour have ye ruled over them.

⁵ And they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, and were scattered.

⁶ My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, and my sheep have been scattered upon all the face of the earth, and there was none that searched, or that sought for them.

⁷ Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah:

⁸ [As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, verily because my sheep have been a prey, and my sheep have been meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds searched not for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock,

⁹ -- therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah.

¹⁰ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock: that the shepherds may feed themselves no more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.

¹¹ For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold I, [even] I, will both search for my sheep, and tend them.

¹² As a shepherd tendeth his flock in the day that he is among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

¹³ And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the water-courses, and in all the habitable places of the country.

¹⁴ I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold, and in a fat pasture they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵ I will myself feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up the broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong: I will feed them with judgment.

¹⁷ And as for you, my flock, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the he-goats.

¹⁸ Is it too small a thing unto you to have eaten up the good pastures, but ye must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures; and to have drunk of the settled waters, but ye must foul the rest with your feet?

¹⁹ And my sheep have to eat that which ye have trodden with your feet, and to drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto them: Behold, [it is] I, and I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹ Because ye thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the weak ones with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad,

²² -- I will save my flock, that they may no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³ And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

²⁴ And I Jehovah will be their God, and my servant David a prince in their midst: I Jehovah have spoken [it].

²⁵ And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell in safety in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

²⁶ And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season: there shall be showers of blessing.

²⁷ And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase; and they shall be in safety in their land, and shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that kept them in servitude.

²⁸ And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beast of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell in safety, and none shall make them afraid.

²⁹ And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the ignominy of the nations any more.

³⁰ And they shall know that I Jehovah their God [am] with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord Jehovah.

³¹ And ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men: I [am] your God, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹ Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops; he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

² (And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me [who is] to be Ruler in Israel: whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.)

³ Therefore will he give them up, until the time when she which travaileth shall have brought forth: and the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

⁴ And he shall stand and feed [his flock] in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God. And they shall abide; for now shall he be great even unto the ends of the earth.

⁵ And this [man] shall be Peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight princes of men.

⁶ And they shall waste the land of Asshur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; and he shall deliver [us] from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

⁷ And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from Jehovah, as showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, neither waiteth for the sons of men.

⁸ And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

⁹ Thy hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots.

¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and overthrow all thy strongholds.

¹² And I will cut off sorceries out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no soothsayers.

¹³ Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy statues out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more bow down to the work of thy hands.

¹⁴ And I will pluck up thine Asherahs out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy cities.

¹⁵ And I will execute vengeance in anger and in fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard of.