Ezekiel 34:30

_THUS SHALL THEY KNOW THAT I THE LORD THEIR GOD AM WITH THEM, AND THAT THEY, EVEN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, ARE MY PEOPLE, SAITH THE LORD GOD._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THIS VERSE....

17-31 The whole nation seemed to be the Lord's flock, yet they were very different characters; but he knew how to distinguish between them. By good pastures and deep waters, are meant the pure word of God and the dispensing of justice. The latter verses, Ezekiel 34:23, prophesy of Christ, and of the most glorious times of his church on earth. Under Him, as the good Shepherd, the church would be a blessing to all around. Christ, though excellent in himself, was as a tender plant out of a dry ground. Being the Tree of life, bearing all the fruits of salvation, he yields spiritual food to the souls of his people. Our constant desire and prayer should be, that there may be showers of blessings in every place where the truth of Christ is preached; and that all who profess the gospel may be filled with fruits of righteousness....

Yahweh having promised to be a Ruler of His people, the administration of the divine kingdom is now described, as carried on by One King, the representative of David, whose dominion should fulfill all the promises originally made to the man after God’s own heart. Ezekiel does not so much add to, as explain and develope, the original promise; and as the complete fulfillment of the spiritual blessings, which the prophets were guided to proclaim, was manifestly never realized in any temporal prosperity of the Jews, and never could and never can be realized in any earthly kingdom, we recognize throughout the Sacred Volume the one subject of all prophecy - the Righteous King, the Anointed Prince, the Son and the Lord of David. Ezekiel 34:23 ONE SHEPHERD - One, as ruling over an undivided people, the distinction between th

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 34:1 AND THE WORD OF THE LORD, etc. As no date is given, we may infer that what follows came as an almost immediate sequel to that which precedes it. The kernel of the chapter is found in the Messianic prophecies of Ezekiel 34:23, Ezekiel 34:24, as the first stage in the restoration of Israel which is beginning to open to the prophet's gaze. We can hardly avoid seeing in it the deliberate expression of words that had been spoken by Ezekiel's master (Jeremiah 23:1), and which in his case also were followed by a directly Messianic announcement. In...

THUS SHALL THEY KNOW THAT I THE LORD THEIR GOD AM WITH THEM,.... Granting them his gracious and powerful presence, by all the above instances of his goodness and favour to them: AND THAT THEY, EVEN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, ARE MY PEOPLE, SAITH THE LORD GOD: and not utterly cast off, as they seemed to be; the divine Shechinah now being returned to them, which had departed from them; the "loammi" that was written on them being now wiped off from them....

The former part of the chapter contains a prophetic denunciation against the evil shepherds, the men who fed not the flocks, but fed themselves, who fouled, with their filthy feet, the waters where the flocks did drink, and trod upon the soft grass that otherwise might have afforded pasture for the sheep. After pronouncing judgment upon them, the Lord turns his thoughts to his sheep, and gives this precious promise, Ezekiel 34:11. _For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out._ The shepherds did not do this; they left the sheep to wander, and they were lost upon the mountains; but where men fail, God proves himself all-sufficient. My hearer, are you sitting under an unprofitable ministry? Then look to the Chief Shepherd, and not to the man who is unfaithful as an under-shepherd....

Ezekiel 34:1. The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. The prophet Jeremiah had received a similar message Jeremiah 23:1. These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the deplorable condition of the flock. Utterly selfish, they cared not for the sheep of His pasture; they feared not God nor did they have a heart for God's people. The flock was scattered and spoiled. Such was the sad condition of the people Israel. And when the Lord Jesus appeared in their midst to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He found them as sheep without a shepherd, and He had compassion upon them Mark 6:34. But they rejected Him and the Shepherd was smitten. Zechariah's prophecy was fulfilled

In the coming days, while Yahweh will indeed be chief Shepherd, there will still be an earthly shepherd, to correspond to the old order of evil shepherds: in plain words, the monarchy will continue, but the monarch will have a real shepherd heart. His title, my servant David, by no means implies the resurrection of the dead king of the olden times, but only a succession (or the first of a succession) of rulers continuing the Davidic line, or possibly even only one who will rule in the spirit and power of David. Instead of the divided kingdom, whose component parts (Israel and Judah) had run their parallel and sometimes hostile course for centuries, will be the united kingdom, under _one_ shepherd, _i.e._ one king. Then will come the glorious Messianic days, the covenant of peace or welfare, whose leading features will be the fertility of the land, the extirpation of its wild beasts, the...

SHALL THEY KNOW. See note on Ezekiel 6:10. Some codices, with three early printed editions, read "shall the nations know",...

am _with them_ LXX. omits _with them_, reading: that I the Lord am their God, and they … my people the usual antithesis. The people's consciousness of salvation shall be, so to speak, a double one, that Jehovah is their God and that they are his people. The two things might seem identical, but the second suggests a feeling regarding themselves which belongs to the perfect enjoyment of salvation....