What Does Ezekiel 34:31 Mean in the King James?
And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The flock image never reduces you to livestock: God names you אָדָם (adam, human being) and names himself as your God.
THE MEANING
You are cared for as part of God’s flock and named as אָדָם (adam, a human being of the ground). Your life is held in God’s pasture, and God is your God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being cared for does not mean being reduced to livestock or losing your full human identity.
THE ROOT
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
The root connects human beings with אָדָמָה (adamah, ground or soil), carrying the sense of an earth-being.
“men” in this verse is adam. The Hebrew says אָדָם אַתֶּם (adam atem, you are human beings). The flock image describes God’s care; it does not erase the ground-born humanity God names.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The shared word-shape links the human being to the ground: the flock God tends is made of people rooted in the earth.
adom: red
אָדֹם
The same consonants echo the reddish color associated with earth, adding an earthy dimension to the name אָדָם (adam, human being).
מַרְעִיתִי
mar'iti
GROWS FROM
רעה
To graze, pasture, or shepherd; to tend a flock.
The word translated “pasture” belongs to the same root as shepherding and tending. God’s pasture is not merely a place: it is the setting of his care for the flock.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: shepherd, one who tends a flock
רֹעֶה
The shepherd and the pasture share a root, joining the place of provision to the act of tending.
mir'eh: pasture, grazing place
מִרְעֶה
This related word makes the pasture’s connection to grazing and care visible in the Hebrew.
THE PATTERN
God’s shepherding care sustains human beings without erasing their human identity.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.THE THREAD
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Genesis joins אָדָם (adam, human being) with אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground), the same word-family heard in Ezekiel’s naming of the flock as human. The shepherded flock is not an abstraction: it is made of earth-formed people.
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