Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;
Parallel translations
- WEB Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;
- BSB Since you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak ones with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,
- NKJV Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad,
- NASB Since you push away with your side and shoulder, and gore all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,
- NLT For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The strong sheep shoved, pushed, and gored the weak until they were scattered. God sees the bullying that drives others away.
Overview
The imagery of thrusting 'with side and with shoulder' and butting 'with your horns' depicts aggressive, domineering behavior within the community. Such conduct scatters the vulnerable—the very harm God set out to undo. The verse exposes how the strong can replicate the sins of the false shepherds, and it grounds the rescue promised in v.22.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Luke 13:14–16And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
- Deut 33:17His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
- Zech 11:16–17For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.
- Ezek 34:3–5Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
- Zech 11:5Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
- Dan 8:3–10Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 34:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.