Yehezkiel 34:22-31

34:22 I will save my sheep; they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹  He will feed them and will be their shepherd. 34:24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince ²  among them; I, the Lord, have spoken!

34:25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ³  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ⁴  34:26 I will turn them and the regions around my hill into a blessing. I will make showers come down in their season; they will be showers that bring blessing. ⁵  34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 34:28 They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid. 34:29 I will prepare for them a healthy ⁶  planting. They will no longer be victims ⁷  of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations. 34:30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, ⁸  and that they are my people, the house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. ⁹  34:31 And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, ¹⁰  and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Yehezkiel 37:21-28

37:21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land. 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ¹¹  37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ¹²  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ¹³  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ¹⁴  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever. 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. ¹⁵  I will establish them, ¹⁶  increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever. 37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 37:28 Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’” ¹⁷ 

Yehezkiel 39:25-29

39:25 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore ¹⁸  the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name. 39:26 They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid. 39:27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 39:28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile ¹⁹  any longer. 39:29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, ²⁰  declares the sovereign Lord.”

[34:23]  ¹ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[34:24]  ² sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).

[34:25]  ³ tn The phrase “live securely” occurs in Ezek 28:26; 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 as an expression of freedom from fear. It is a promised blessing resulting from obedience (see Lev 26:5-6).

[34:25]  ⁴ sn The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20-21; Jer 5:6).

[34:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).

[34:29]  ⁶ tc The MT reads לְשֵׁם (lÿshem, “for a name”), meaning perhaps a renowned planting (place). The translation takes this to be a metathesis of שָׁלֹם (shalom) as was read by the LXX.

[34:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.

[34:30]  ⁸ sn A promise given to Abraham (Gen 15:7) and his descendants (Gen 15:8; Exod 6:7).

[34:30]  ⁹ sn The blessings described in vv. 25-30 are those promised for obedience in Lev 26:4-13.

[34:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb, “the sheep of my pasture, you are human.” See 36:37-38 for a similar expression. The possessive pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation to balance “I am your God” in the next clause.

[37:22]  ¹¹ sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

[37:23]  ¹² tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.

[37:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[37:26]  ¹⁵ sn See Isa 24:5; 55:3; 61:8; Jer 32:40; 50:5; Ezek 16:60, for other references to perpetual covenants.

[37:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “give them.”

[37:28]  ¹⁷ sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.

[39:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “cause to return.”

[39:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.

[39:29]  ²⁰ sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.