A Prophecy against Israel’s Shepherds

¹Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?

³You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.

⁴You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

⁵They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts.

⁶My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

⁸‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because My flock lacks a shepherd and has become prey and food for every wild beast, and because My shepherds did not search for My flock but fed themselves instead,

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD!’

¹⁰This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand from them My flock and remove them from tending the flock, so that they can no longer feed themselves. For I will deliver My flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.’

The Good Shepherd

¹¹For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out.

¹²As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock.I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land.

¹⁴I will feed them in good pasture, and the lofty mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing land; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I will tend My flock and make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁶I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’

¹⁷This is what the Lord GOD says to you, My flock: ‘I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats.

¹⁸Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear waters? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?

¹⁹Why must My flock feed on what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have muddied?’

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Since you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak ones with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,

²²I will save My flock, and they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.

²⁴I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.

The Covenant of Peace

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

²⁶I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing.

²⁷The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them from the hands that enslaved them.

²⁸They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not consume them. They will dwell securely, and no one will frighten them.

²⁹And I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

³⁰Then 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 sheep of My pasture, My people, and I am your God,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

Judgment against Idolatry

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

³You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

⁵I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

A Remnant to Be Blessed

⁸Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

¹⁰And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.

¹¹This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

¹²He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

¹³Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

¹⁴I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

The Linen Loincloth

¹This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.”

²So I bought a loincloth in accordance with the word of the LORD, and I put it around my waist.

³Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:

⁴“Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perathand hide it there in a crevice of the rocks.”

⁵So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD had commanded me.

⁶Many days later the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to Perath, and get the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.”

⁷So I went to Perath and dug up the loincloth, and I took it from the place where I had hidden it. But now it was ruined—of no use at all.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to me:

⁹“This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth—of no use at all.

¹¹For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the LORD, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen.

The Wineskins

¹²Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Every wineskin shall be filled with wine.’And when they reply, ‘Don’t we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’

¹³then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

¹⁴I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

Captivity Threatened

¹⁵Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant,for the LORD has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the LORD your Godbefore He brings darkness,before your feet stumbleon the dusky mountains.You wait for light,but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

¹⁷But if you do not listen,I will weep in secret because of your pride.My eyes will overflow with tears,because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the kingand to the queen mother:“Take a lowly seat,for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹⁹The cities of the Negev have been shut tight,and no one can open them.All Judah has been carried into exile,wholly taken captive.

²⁰Lift up your eyes and seethose coming from the north.Where is the flock entrusted to you,the sheep that were your pride?

²¹What will you say when He sets over youclose allies whom you yourself trained?Will not pangs of anguish grip you,as they do a woman in labor?

²²And if you ask yourself,“Why has this happened to me?”It is because of the magnitude of your iniquitythat your skirts have been stripped offand your body has been exposed.

²³Can the Ethiopianchange his skin,or the leopard his spots?Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

²⁴“I will scatter you like chaffdriven by the desert wind.

²⁵This is your lot,the portion I have measured to you,”declares the LORD,“because you have forgotten Meand trusted in falsehood.

²⁶So I will pull your skirts up over your face,that your shame may be seen.

²⁷Your adulteries and lustful neighings,your shameless prostitutionon the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts.Woe to you, O Jerusalem!How long will you remain unclean?”

Warnings about the Adulteress

¹My son, keep my wordsand treasure my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live;guard my teachings as the appleof your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers;write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”and call understanding your kinsman,

⁵that they may keep you from the adulteress,from the stranger with seductive words.

⁶For at the window of my houseI looked through the lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple,I noticed among the youths,a young man lacking judgment,

⁸crossing the street near her corner,strolling down the road to her house,

⁹at twilight, as the day was fadinginto the dark of the night.

¹⁰Then a woman came out to meet him,with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

¹¹She is loud and defiant;her feet do not remain at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares,she lurks at every corner.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him;she brazenly says to him:

¹⁴“I have made my peace offerings;today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you;I sought you, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have decked my bed with coverings,with colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,with aloes, and with cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.Let us delight in loving caresses!

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took with him a bag of moneyand will not return till the moon is full.”

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him;with her flattering lips she lures him.

²²He follows her on impulse,like an ox going to the slaughter,like a deer bounding into a trap,

²³until an arrow pierces his liver,like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, my sons, listen to me,and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways;do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death;her slain are many in number.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol,descending to the chambers of death.