The Restoration of Israel

¹¹ For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. ¹² As a shepherd cares for his sheep on the day that he is among his scattered flock, so I will care for My sheep; and I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. ¹³ I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. ¹⁴ I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I will feed My flock and I will let them lie down [to rest],” says the Lord God. ¹⁶ “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bandage the crippled, and strengthen the weak and the sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong [who have become hard-hearted and perverse]. I will feed them with judgment and punishment.^(A)

¹⁷ “And as for you, My flock, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats [between the righteous and the unrighteous]. ¹⁸ Is it too little a thing for you that you [unrighteous ones who are well-fed] feed in the best pasture, yet you must trample down with your feet [of wickedness] the rest of your pastures? Or that you drink clear [still] water, yet you must muddy with your feet [of wickedness] the rest [of the water]? ¹⁹ As for My flock (the righteous), they must feed on what you trample with your feet and drink what you muddy with your feet!’”

²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God to them, “Behold, I Myself will judge between the [well-fed] fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Because you push with side and shoulder, and gore with your horns all those that have become weak and sick until you have scattered them away, ²² therefore, I will rescue My flock, and they shall no longer be prey; and I will judge between one sheep [ungodly] and another [godly].

²³ “Then I will appoint over them one shepherd and he will feed them, [a ruler like] My servant ^[a]David; he will feed them and be their shepherd.^{(B) 24} And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.

²⁵ “I will make a covenant of peace with them and will eliminate the predatory animals from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep [safely] in the woods.^{(C) 26} I will make them and the places around My hill (Jerusalem, Zion) a blessing. And I will make showers come down in their season; there will be [abundant] showers of blessing (divine favor). ²⁷ Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its produce; and My people will be secure on their land. Then they will know [with confidence] that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have rescued them from the hand of those who made them slaves. ²⁸ They will no longer be prey to the nations, and the predators of the earth will not devour them; but they will live safely, and no one will make them afraid [in the ^[b]day of the Messiah’s reign].^{(D) 29} I will prepare for them a place renowned for planting [crops], and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations any longer. ³⁰ Then they will know [with assurance] that I the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God. ³¹ “As for you, My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God.