What Does Ezekiel 34:7 Mean?
Therefore, you shepherds, hear and respond to the word of the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;THE KEY
The shepherds who are responsible for others must first hear the voice that holds their care to account.
THE MEANING
Where you carry another’s care, the LORD’s word addresses you as a listener before it defines your authority. Hearing reaches toward response here, so tending cannot be separated from receiving the word that guides it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A title gives its bearer sole authority to define care. This verse places the shepherd under the LORD’s word first.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
שמע (sh-m-ʿ): to hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿu. The plural command is directed at the caretakers themselves: they must hear. The root carries listening toward heed, showing that the LORD’s word is something to receive and respond to, not merely a sound that passes by.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: A form of the same verb root, meaning to hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
It shows that the command is about receiving the LORD’s address, not simply occupying the role of shepherd.
shemuʿah: Something heard or reported.
שְׁמוּעָה
The word the shepherds must hear is an address they receive, making listening part of their responsibility.
רֹעִים
roʿim
GROWS FROM
רעה
רעה (r-ʿ-h): to tend, pasture, shepherd.
“shepherds” in this verse is roʿim. The title grows from the work of tending a flock; it names a responsibility toward living dependents, not status alone. A related word for pasture points to what that tending is meant to provide: a place where the flock can feed.
ALSO GROWS
roʿeh: The singular form for a shepherd or tender of a flock.
רֹעֶה
It keeps the focus on the act of care that gives the title its substance.
mirʿeh: A pasture or place where animals graze.
מִרְעֶה
The pasture is where the flock receives food, revealing the concrete purpose of shepherding.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
דבר (d-b-r): to speak, utter; a spoken word or matter.
The word translated “word” belongs to a root that also names speaking, while the noun can refer to a matter or thing. The LORD’s address therefore concerns the actual work and condition of the flock, not just the shepherds’ title.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word or speech, and also a matter or thing.
דָּבָר
The range keeps the LORD’s address connected to the real matters entrusted to the shepherds.
dibber: A verb form meaning to speak.
דִּבֵּר
It traces “the word” back to the act of speaking: the shepherds are being addressed by the LORD.
THE PATTERN
Those entrusted with care remain answerable to the voice that commissions and defines that care.
And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.Woe to the shepherds who drive to lose the way and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the LORD.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.“Hear” in Ezekiel and “heareth” here share the Hebrew root שמע (sh-m-ʿ), meaning to hear or heed. Samuel’s answer shows that this hearing opens into response, the posture Ezekiel’s shepherds are commanded to take toward the LORD’s word.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us