Ezekiel 34:9

Study note

Setting — Yahweh addresses the corrupt shepherds of Israel immediately after detailing their neglect and self-serving behavior in Ezekiel 34:8, serving as the direct preamble to the judgment pronounced in Ezekiel 34:10.

The words — לָ/כֵן (la./Khen) translates literally as "therefore," marking the logical consequence of the preceding indictment, while שִׁמְע֖וּ (shim.'U) means "hear," functioning as an imperative summons to divine attention.

The thread — This verse operates as the hinge between the indictment of the shepherds in Ezekiel 34:8 and the declaration of divine intervention in Ezekiel 34:10, with the phrase "hear the word of the LORD" recurring throughout the prophetic corpus as a standard warning formula.

Why it lands — The text demands that the accused leaders stop justifying their actions and directly receive Yahweh’s verdict, establishing that divine judgment follows directly from the failure to tend the flock.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.