11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.
In these verses God Himself undertakes to shepherd His people. When one thinks of all the darkness and declension of the years from Solomon to Zedekiah, we realise what a marvellous picture this is. It is not difficult to detect the resemblance of the language here to that of the Lord Jesus, in His wonderful parable of the lost sheep, in Luke 15, and of the good Shepherd in John 10. It is impressive to realise how our Lord's mind and thinking were saturated with Ezekiel's prophecy, as if He were in effect saying, 'Yes, I am the One who will fulfil these words, and this is how I will do it: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep'. In 12 the reference to the cloudy and dark day is taken by some to be eschatological, i.e. pointing away to the end-time. If so, it is the future kingdom of God in Christ that is in view, and who shall complain about such an interpretation. The RSV and NEB translate 16b very differently from the AV - the RSV says 'watch over' instead of 'destroy', and the NEB has 'leave them to play'. The NIV, however, follows the AV and this reading seems to be borne out by what Ezekiel goes on to say in 17-22, where judgment among the flock is spoken of. The point being made is that the flock is to be purged not only of its bad leadership, but also of its bad members, who were involved in the social injustice and oppression of the time.