34 Then Yahweh gave me another message: 2 “Humanity’s child, prophesy against Yisrael’s shepherds. Prophesy and tell them that the master Yahweh says this to the shepherds: Yisrael’s shepherds who are shepherding themselves won’t end well. Shouldn’t shepherds guard the flock? 3 You eat the best sheep meat and dress in woollen clothes. You slaughter the fat lambs. You don’t shepherd at all. 4 You haven’t taken care of those with diseases, nor do you heal those who are ill. You don’t bandage up the ones with broken limbs, and you don’t restore the outcasts or search for those who’ve gone missing. Instead, you use strength and violence to rule over them. 5 Then they were scattered without a shepherd, and after they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals in the countryside.[ref] 6 My flock has strayed across all the mountains and onto every high hill, and it’s dispersed over the entire surface of the earth, yet no one is searching for them.

7 Therefore, you shepherds, listen to Yahweh’s message to you: 8 This is the master Yahweh’s declaration: As I live, my flock has become plunder and food for all the wild animals in the countryside, because there wasn’t any shepherd and because none of my shepherds tried to find any of my flock that had gotten lost. Instead it was themselves that the shepherds looked after, and they didn’t shepherd my flock. 9 Therefore, you so-called ‘shepherds’, listen to Yahweh’s message: 10 The master Yahweh says this: Listen, I’m against those shepherds. I’ll require compensation from them for my flock, and then I’ll dismiss them from shepherding the flock. Those shepherds won’t shepherd themselves any longer either, because I’ll take my flock away from their mouths, so that my flock won’t become food for them any longer.