The Shepherds Who Fed Themselves
1 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “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 Yahweh’s word: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word!” 10 The Lord Yahweh says: “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 the Lord Yahweh says: “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 rich 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 Yahweh. 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.”’
The leaders are charged with eating a flock they were supposed to feed, and God announces that he will do the job himself.
The charge is put as a question that answers itself: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn't the shepherds feed the sheep? What follows is an inventory of what they took — the fat, the wool, the fatlings — set against an inventory of what they did not do. The two lists are the whole indictment, and the second is longer than the first.
The list of omissions repays reading item by item, because it defines the office. 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. Five duties, five failures, and every one of them concerns an animal in trouble. A shepherd's work is defined here entirely by his conduct toward the weakest members of the flock, and the healthy sheep are never mentioned.
What they did instead is given in one clause — you have ruled over them with force and with rigor — and then the consequence, which is stated twice as a bare fact rather than as a punishment: They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. Not because the shepherds were cruel, though they were, but because there was effectively nobody doing the work. The sheep wandered over every hill and became food for wild animals, and there was no one who searched or sought.
The response is announced in the first person and it is a dismissal followed by a substitution. Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand. Then the same five verbs the shepherds failed at are taken up by God himself: he will search, seek out, deliver, bring back, bind up, strengthen. He will feed them on the mountains of Israel in a good fold. The remedy for bad shepherding is not better shepherds in the first instance. It is the owner coming for his own sheep. And one clause at the end refuses to sentimentalize it: I will feed them in justice.
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