^34:23I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them—namely, my servant David.⁸ He will feed them and will be their shepherd. ^34:24I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince⁹ 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 securely¹⁰ in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods.¹¹^34:26I 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.¹²^34:27The 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. ^34:28They 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. ^34:29I will prepare for them a healthy¹³ planting. They will no longer be victims¹⁴ of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations. ^34:30Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them,¹⁵ and that they are my people, the house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.¹⁶^34:31And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people,¹⁷ and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’ ”

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Ezekiel 34:26: And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.

Footnotes

8 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).
9 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).
10 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).
11 The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20–21; Jer 5:6).
12 Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).
13 The reads לְשֵׁם (léshem, “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 .
14 Heb “those gathered” for famine.
15 A promise given to Abraham (Gen 15:7) and his descendants (Gen 15:8; Exod 6:7).
16 The blessings described in vv. 25–30 are those promised for obedience in Lev 26:4–13.
17 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.