Ezekiel 34:23

And I will set up one shepherd over them,.... Or governor, as the Targum; an excellent one of a thousand, the only one; in comparison of whom others are not to be named; for though there are under

And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

I will set; advance, establish, and make great; thus I will appoint and set up. One shepherd: formerly their many shepherds destroyed, as ; now this one shall save. Literally and historically Zerubbabel may be somewhat intended, but principally and plenarily, as Christ is intended here, so in him it was accomplished; for he is the great, good, chief, only Shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep. Feed them; give them best, most abundant, and most seasonable food, he also shall govern them in righteousness, and with equity. My servant David; Messiah, (as Kimchi on the place,) of the seed of David, the beloved One, who was typified by David, and in other places called by this name, as . He shall do all the office of a good and faithful shepherd, and that for ever. I will trust them in his hands, for he will keep them, that not one of them shall be lost, but shall go in and out under his hand, and find pasture.

Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, [even] my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.Ver. 23. And I will set up one shepherd.] Who, indeed, is the only shepherd. Magistrates and ministers are shepherds; but Christ is the "good shepherd"; the "great shepherd and bishop of souls"; the true shepherd, above all for skill, love, and power; above Jacob, above David, of whom he descended, and by whose name he is here called. Even my servant David,] i.e., Christ, the son and successor of David, not David George as that odious heretic who died at Basil blasphemously applied this text to himself, as if he had been the man here intended. The Jews themselves confess that Messiah is here meant. He shall feed them.] This is thus repeated, as that which containeth a world of comfort. It showeth also that Christ will do it to the utmost. Jacob was a sedulous shepherd; Christ much more.

(23) Set up one shepherd.—He is one both with reference to the many evil rulers who have gone before (and this implies the perpetuity of His rule), and also with reference to the two kingdoms of Israel, which are hereafter to be for evermore united in the one Church of God. Obviously this prophecy can find its accomplishment in no merely human ruler. My servant David.—The name of David is here put simply, as in Ezekiel 34:24, Ezekiel 37:24-25; Jeremiah 30:9; Hosea 3:5, instead of the more usual designations of the Messiah as the Son, the Branch, the Offspring of David; but there can be no possible doubt of the meaning, any more than of who is meant by Elijah in Malachi 4:5, in view of our Lord’s own interpretation in Matthew 11:14; Matthew 17:11-14. Yet it should be remembered, if any one should incline to understand this whole prophecy literally, that if one part is to be so understood the rest must be taken in the same way; if we are to think that the prophet here foretells the literal restoration of the two kingdoms of Israel to their own land, and their union under one governor, then that governor must be David himself. The absurdity of such a supposition is one important element in showing that the whole is to be understood of a promise of spiritual blessings, and of the gathering of God’s people into His Church as one flock under their Almighty Shepherd. (Comp. John 10:14-18.) David, as the head of the theocracy and the ancestor of our Lord after the flesh, constantly appears in the Scriptures as the type of the Messiah, and there can be no reasonable doubt that this prophecy must have been so understood, even at the time when it was uttered.

Verse 23. I will set up one Shepherd - my servant David] DAVID, king of Israel, had been dead upwards of four hundred years; and from that time till now there never was a ruler of any kind, either in the Jewish Church or state, of the name of David. This, then, must be some typical person; and from the texts marked in the margin we understand that Jesus Christ alone is meant, as both Old and New TESTAMENTS agree in this. And from this one Shepherd all Christian ministers must derive their authority to teach, and their grace to teach effectually. By the kind providence of God it appears that he has not permitted any apostolic succession to be preserved, lest the members of his Church should seek that in an uninterrupted succession which must be found in the HEAD alone. The papists or Roman Catholics, who boast of an uninterrupted succession, which is a mere fable that never was and never can be proved, have raised up another head, the POPE. And I appeal to themselves, in the fear of God, whether they do not in heart and in speech trace up all their authority to him, and only compliment Christ as having appointed Peter to be the first bishop of Rome, (which is an utter falsity, for he was never appointed to such an office there, nor ever held such an office in that city, nor, in their sense, any where else;) and they hold also that the popes of Rome are not so much Peter's successors as God's vicars; and thus both God and Peter are nearly lost sight of in their papal enumerations. With them the authority of the Church is all in all; the authority of Christ is seldom mentioned.

23–28. Instead of the many worthless shepherds of old there shall in the future be one good shepherd, even David, and Jehovah shall in truth be God of Israel.

23-31. The Messianic hope of the coming of my servant David — the ideal prince (compare Ezekiel 37:22; Ezekiel 37:24; Psalms 78:70-71; Isaiah 56:3-8; 1 Kings 9:9; 1 Kings 11:4) — who shall shepherd