1. the Lord’s word came to me, saying,
2. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep?
3. You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.
4. You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor.
5. They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
6. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”
7. “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the Lord’s word:
8. “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep.”
9. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the Lord’s word:
10. Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep. The shepherds won’t feed themselves any more. I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”
11. “‘For thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
12. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13. I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14. I will feed them with good pasture; and their fold will be on the mountains of the height of Israel. There they will lie down in a good fold. They will feed on fat pasture on the mountains of Israel.
15. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord GOD.
16. “I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.”’
17. “As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.
18. Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, but must you foul the residue with your feet?
19. As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.’