You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.
Parallel Translations
-
You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.
-
Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
-
Ye did eat the fat, and ye clothed you with the wool, ye killed the fatlings; but ye fed not the sheep.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 34:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Zechariah 11:16 For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces.
- 1 Kings 21:13-16 The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned, and is dead.” When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned, and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
- 2 Kings 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.
- Isaiah 1:10 Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
- Isaiah 56:11-12 Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter. “Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
- Jeremiah 2:30 “I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
- Jeremiah 22:17 But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
- Lamentations 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
- Ezekiel 19:3 She brought up one of her cubs. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men.
- Ezekiel 19:6 He went up and down among the lions. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men.
- Ezekiel 22:25-28 There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it. Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them. Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘The Lord Yahweh says,’ when Yahweh has not spoken.
- Ezekiel 33:25-26 Therefore tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. So should you possess the land? You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. So should you possess the land?” ’
- Micah 3:1-3 I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.
- Zechariah 11:5 Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them.
- Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Ye seek to enrich yourselves by their commodities, and…
Ye seek to enrich yourselves by their commodities, and to spoil their riches and substance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 34:3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe…
Eze 34:3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: [but] ye feed not the flock.
Ver. 3. Ye eat the fat.] Ecce, lac et lanam recipitis. This ye might do, if in measure, for the workman is worthy of his wages, {see 1Co 9:7} but ye gorge yourselves with the best of the best. Et si ventri bene, si lateri, as Epicurus in Horace, If the belly may be filled, the back fitted, that is all you take care for. In parabola ovis capras quaeritis, et vestrum maxime compendium spectatis; ye are all for your own ends, nourishing your hearts as in a day of slaughter, or of good cheer. {Jas 5:5}
Read full note →
Ye kill them that are fed.] Heb., Ye sacrifice them; so ye pretend, but mind your own fat paunches. See Pro 7:14.
But ye feed not the flock.] As being falsi et ficti imo picti pastores, mock shepherds.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The fat; rather the milk, which insatiably and without…
The fat; rather the milk, which insatiably and without measure you devour; you exhaust their purses and weaken their estates by tributes, exacted by extortions: so the temporal rulers and the spiritual rulers had their methods and arts to milk them dry, these lived on the sins of the people.
With the wool; with best and finest, as best suiting with your pride and luxury, on which you force the people to bestow so much that they have not to clothe themselves and theirs; this was mighty oppression.
Read full note →
Ye kill them; contrive methods for a seeming legal course to forfeit first the life, and next the estate, of the well-fed, the rich, and wealthy, and then make merry and feast, as voluptuous, unfaithful shepherds feast on the fattest of the sheep in their masters’ fold. Ye feed not the flock; take no care to lead, protect, provide for, and watch over them, but, as idle shepherds feasted with the fattest, let the rest starve for any thing they care.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Ye eat the fat,.... The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and…
Ye eat the fat,.... The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it, "the milk"; the words for fat and milk differ only in the points; and this was not unlawful, for
who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Co1 9:7, provided it was done with moderation, that they ate some, but not all; but these rulers milked their subjects too much, oppressed them with heavy taxes, and got their substance into their own hands. The Targum is,
Read full note →
"ye eat the good;''
they got possessed of the best of their substance; as did also their ecclesiastical rulers, who were greedy shepherds, that could never have enough; they looked for their gain from their quarter, and even devoured widows' houses, Isa 56:11,
ye clothe you with the wool: the pure wool, as the Targum, the finest of it; they fleeced the flock, and stripped the people of their riches; and minded nothing but their own backs and bellies:
ye kill them that are fed; or, that "are fat" (q); the richest of the people they brought accusations and charges against for capital crimes; and so put them to death under a colour of justice, that they, might get their estates into their hands:
but ye feed not the flock; did not govern the people well, by doing justice and judgment among men, as became civil magistrates; did not deliver out words of faith and sound doctrine, to feed the souls of men with, which is the duty of those that preside in the church of God.
(q) "quod pingue est", Vatablus, Bochartus; "pinguem", Cocceius, Starckius. So Ben Melech.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Ye kill - You contrive methods, to take first…
Ye kill - You contrive methods, to take first the life, and next the estate of the well-fed, the rich and wealthy. But - You take care to lead, protect, provide for, and watch over them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Ye eat the fat] I think החלב…
Verse 3. Ye eat the fat] I think החלב hacheleb should be translated the milk; and so most of the Versions understand it. Or they lived on the fat sheep, and took the wool of all.
"The priests," says Calmet, "ate the tithes, the first-fruits, and the offerings of the people; the princes received the tributes and imposts; and instead of instructing and protecting them, the latter took away their lives by the cruelties they practiced against them: the former destroyed their souls by the poison of their doctrine, and by their bad example. The fat sheep point out the rich, to whom these pastors often disguised the truth, by a cruel condescension and complaisance."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 34:3-4. Ye eat the fat — Or, the…
Eze 34:3-4. Ye eat the fat — Or, the milk, as the LXX. render it. The Hebrew words chalab, milk, and cheleb, fat, differ only in their points, so that the ancient versions take them promiscuously one for the other. These shepherds of the Lord’s flock, these civil and ecclesiastical rulers of the people, used their power over them, and exercised their offices, merely for their temporal advantage and emolument. “They exacted their tribute and taxes, their tithes and perquisites, with great earnestness; and they oppressed, and even destroyed the people, to enrich themselves: but they bestowed no pains to provide for the welfare of the state, or of the souls of those intrusted to them.” — Scott. Ye kill them that are fed — Ye take away the lives of the wealthy and substantial by unjust means, in order to enrich yourselves with their estates. But ye feed not the flock — Ye take no care for their benefit, temporal or spiritual. Ye are so ignorant that ye know not how to feed them, and ye are so indolent that ye will not take any pains to do it, and ye are so treacherous and unfaithful that ye never desired or designed it. The diseased — The weak and languishing; have ye not strengthened — With your help, counsel, or countenance. Ye have not applied proper remedies to the wants and necessities of those committed to your charge. The magistrates have not taken care to relieve the needy and defend the oppressed. The priests and the prophets have not been diligent in giving the people proper instructions, in rectifying the mistakes of those that were in error, in warning the unruly, or comforting the disconsolate. Neither have ye bound up that which was broken — Ye have not given relief to the afflicted and miserable: a metaphor taken from surgeons binding up wounds in order to cure them. Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, &c. — Or, which was gone astray, as the word נדחה is translated, Deu 22:1. Ye have not, by your instructions and exhortations, endeavoured to reduce those who had wandered from the way of truth, or to reclaim those who were ready to perish in their sins; but with force and cruelty have ye ruled them — Have endeavoured to reduce and govern them by the rough methods of compulsion and cruelty, and not by the gentle way of reason and argument, longsuffering, meekness, and love; and your government over them has been exercised by tyranny and oppression, instead of justice, kindness, and beneficence.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Fat. Pastors often disguise the truth to flatter the…
Fat. Pastors often disguise the truth to flatter the rich, or the more just souls are ruined by their negligence.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain fat--or, by differently pointing the Hebrew, "milk" [Septuagint]. Thus…
fat--or, by differently pointing the Hebrew, "milk" [Septuagint]. Thus the repetition "fat" and "fed" is avoided: also the eating of "fat" would not probably be put before the "killing" of the sheep. The eating of sheep's or goats' milk as food (Deu 32:14; Pro 27:27) was unobjectionable, had not these shepherds milked them too often, and that without duly "feeding" them [BOCHART], (Isa 56:11). The rulers levied exorbitant tributes.
kill . . . fed--kill the rich by false accusation so as to get possession of their property.
Read full note →
feed not . . . flock--take no care of the people (Joh 10:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Ye eat the fat] LXX. the milk (the…
3. Ye eat the fat] LXX. the milk (the consonants are the same). Cf. Isa_7:22; Zec_11:16.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Ye eat the fat. The LXX and the Vulgate,…
Ye eat the fat. The LXX and the Vulgate, following a different reading, give milk, and, as "killing" comes in the next clause, this is probably preferable. (comp. 1Co_9:7; Isa_7:22)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.