Commentary on Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

The book of Ezekiel comes from a tough place, and it has a tough message. Even in the third, hopeful section of the book, that hope comes with some difficult messages to hear. When the Babylonian Empire conquered Judah, the first thing they did was take the political and religious leaders into exile in Babylon, leaving the everyday folks behind. They thought this would prevent rebellion, but the Judeans still fought back. In retaliation, the Babylonian Empire destroyed the Jerusalem temple and exiled even more people. With them, they brought the news of destruction to the exiled elites.

Ezekiel was one of that first group of exiles. He went from being a respected religious leader in the Jerusalem temple, one of the few people who could read and write, to being a subsistence farmer in a strange land with public worship practices that went against his faith. 

Archaeologists have discovered that the Judean exiles likely lived together in a small ethnic enclave, doing manual labor. The news that the temple had been destroyed would have added to their devastation, especially since they saw it as the only place where they could appropriately worship God. The book of Ezekiel dates its prophecies not just by the calendar but also by how long his community has been in exile and how long it has been since the temple was destroyed. 

Ezekiel 34:11–16 and 20–24 come near the beginning of a new section of the book. It shifts from what went wrong to hope for the future, but this hope does not forget past mistakes or current suffering. Ezekiel 34 is a prophecy against the leaders, whom he describes as shepherds, and a prophecy of hope for the people, whom he describes as sheep. God proposes to act as a replacement for the leaders, who have not acted as good shepherds. They have acted in their own self-interest rather than protecting, caring for, and feeding the people. 

Verses 20–24 take the ovine metaphor a step further, recognizing that there is inequity among the people. Ezekiel’s prophecy likens the community of exiles to a flock in which there are fat sheep and lean sheep. In this flock, the fat sheep shove the lean sheep out of the way, preventing them from accessing clean water and good pasture. The fat sheep have gained strength from these resources, but they use that strength to prevent the lean sheep from doing the same. 

This is an apt metaphor in Ezekiel’s agrarian context, and a familiar one to those of us who raise animals. Anyone who enjoys feeding wildlife has also seen this dynamic, whether with suburban birdfeeder-destroying squirrels or urban parking lot seagulls attacking expired tortillas. The stronger animals use their strength to monopolize the resources and retain their power. As Ezekiel’s metaphor brings to our attention, some humans behave similarly. 

God, Ezekiel prophesies, will judge not just between sheep and shepherd, between sheep and predators, but between sheep and sheep. Ezekiel prophesies against both the leaders and the community members who monopolize the resources needed for survival and thriving.

Ezekiel 33 shifted from prophecies of judgment to those of hope, but Ezekiel 34 is a prophecy against the same people to whom Ezekiel is providing hope. How is this a hopeful message? It offers hope of restoration to the people in exile, but it refuses to preach toxic positivity. 

The community has been living in exile for a long time, likely 25 years. In the ancient world, the average person lived about 30–33 years. In the historical context of this verse, many of the original exiles have died. The new generation doesn’t remember Judah, Jerusalem, or the temple, but they’ve heard stories. The lived reality in exile is harsh, and the promise that God will restore them without strings attached would have felt overly optimistic.

As normal as it seems to us to worship one God, the exiles were unusual in that respect. The Babylonians, like most cultures of the ancient Afro-Asiatic world (see Wil Gafney for more on this term), were polytheistic, worshipping different gods and goddesses for different purposes. The assumption among polytheistic cultures was that when two nations fought, their national gods fought each other on their behalf. The losing side would have been expected to worship their conqueror’s supposedly stronger, more powerful god, one who would protect them better in future battles. 

With their unusual belief in their one God, the exiles did not believe that the Babylonians’ god had defeated Judah’s. Instead, they determined that they must have done something wrong. The leaders of the Jerusalem temple had believed that the most important thing they could do was worship their one God in the right way in the right place. Now that place was destroyed; worshipping the “right way” wasn’t an option. For the religious leadership, it would have felt hopeless. The prophecy received in Ezekiel 34 suggests another option: The inequity caused by resource hoarding is the real problem. 

Ezekiel 34 may not sound like a prophecy of hope, but it is. It just isn’t a prophecy of unmitigated, unrealistic hope. It is a more appropriate prophecy for people who have experienced enough reality to know better. Instead, it offers hope through accountability. 

Restoration is possible when we replace self-serving leaders with the divine Shepherd. It is possible when those who have been made strong by clean food and water make sure the lean sheep have the opportunity to do the same. It takes a good shepherd to make the sacrifices necessary to protect, care for, and feed sheep. Ezekiel 34 suggests that it also takes good sheep to have a thriving community—which is what God wanted all along.