Ezekiel 34:17

And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
you	וְאַתֵּ֣נָה ve.'a.Te.nah	H859	thou and thee · conjunction + personal pronoun, 2nd person feminine plural
flock	צֹאנִ֔י tzo.Ni	H6629	a collective name for a flock (of sheep or goats) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
saith	אָמַ֖ר 'a.Mar	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord	אֲדֹנָ֣י 'a.do.Nai	H136	the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD	יְהוִ֑ה Yah.weh	H3069	YHWH · proper noun, a title
judge	שֹׁפֵט֙ sho.Fet	H8199	to judge · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
cattle	שֶׂ֣ה seh	H7716	a member of a flock · noun, common both genders singular absolute
cattle	לָשֶׂ֔ה la.Seh	H7716	a member of a flock · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
rams	לָאֵילִ֖ים la.'ei.Lim	H352	properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
goats	וְלָעַתּוּדִֽים ve.la.'a.tu.Dim	H6260	prepared · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Ezekiel 34:20-22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
Zechariah 10:3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and…
Matthew 25:32-33 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Ezekiel 20:37-38 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 34:17–end

The prophet has no more to say to the shepherds, but he has now a message to deliver to the flock. God had ordered him to speak tenderly to them, and to assure them of the mercy he had in store for them. But here he is ordered to make a difference between some and others of them, to separate between the precious and the vile and then to give them a promise of the Messiah, by whom this distinction should be effectually made, partly at his first coming (for for judgment he came into this world, Joh 9:39, to fill the hungry with good things and to send the rich empty away, Luk 1:53), but completely at his second coming, when he shall, as it is here said, judge between cattle and cattle, as a sh…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 34:17

you, . . . my flock--passing from the rulers to the people. cattle and cattle--rather, "sheep and sheep"; Margin, "small cattle," or "flocks of lambs and kids," that is, I judge between one class of citizens and another, so as to award what is right to each. He then defines the class about to be punitively "judged," namely, "the rams and he-goats," or "great he-goats" (compare Isa 14:9, Margin; Zac 10:3; Mat 25:32-33). They answer to "the fat and strong," as opposed to the "sick" (Eze 34:16). The rich and ungodly of the people are meant, who imitated the bad rulers in oppressing their poorer brethren, as if it enhanced their own joys to trample on others' rights (Eze 34:18).

Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 34:17

And as for you, O my flock - After having spoken to the shepherds, he now addresses the flock. I judge between cattle and cattle - Between false and true professors; between them that have only the form and them that have the power of godliness; between the backslider in heart and the upright man.

John Gill on Ezekiel 34:17

And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God,.... Having done with the shepherds, and the complaint against them, the Lord proceeds to take notice of the flock, or the people themselves, and the evils that were among them; for in the Lord's own flock, in the nation and church of Israel, as now in the visible congregated churches of Christ, there were two sorts of persons, some good, others bad; some that behaved well, and others ill; some were sheep, and others goats: behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats: between the smaller and weaker cattle, the sheep and the lambs; and the larger and stronger cattle, the rams and he goats; by which latter ma…

The Church Fathers

If you really think, brothers, what a very great blessing it is to be God's flock, you must be filled even in the midst of these tears and troubles of ours with very great joy.
— Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 47:3

We who desire to be flocks of the shepherd must never try to escape from being fed even by the very things that seem to diverge from Scripture and are trampled on because of the discordance of what is said by those who neither want nor can use the nourishment that Scripture gives in all its fullness.
— Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, PREFACE

What are he-goats doing here in God's flock? In the same pastures, at the same springs, he-goats, though destined for the left hand, are mixing with those of the right hand, and those who are going to be separated are first tolerated. And this is to exercise the sheep in a patience after the likeness of God's own patience.
— Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 47:6

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Goat — (1.) Heb. ‘ez, the she-goat (Gen. 15:9; 30:35; 31:38). This Hebrew word is also used for the he-goat (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 4:23; Num. 28:15), and to denote a kid (Gen. 38:17, 20). Hence it may be regarded…

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Ezekiel 34:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 34:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 34:17

Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 34:17

John Gill on Ezekiel 34:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Ezekiel 34:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 34:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 34:17

Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 34:17

John Gill on Ezekiel 34:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 34:11-22

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Ezekiel 34:17-19

Rashi on Ezekiel 34:17