What Does Ezekiel 34:6 Mean in the King James?
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
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 Hebrew names a double abandonment: the flock is spread everywhere, and no one even makes inquiry for it.
THE MEANING
When you are scattered across every high place, the wound includes the absence of anyone who makes inquiry for you. The verse names that abandonment plainly: the flock lies dispersed across the whole face of the earth, and no one searches after it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being lost proves you are unworthy of being sought: the verse names the failure as the absence of a searcher, not as the flock’s lack of value.
THE ROOT
דּוֹרֵשׁ
doresh
GROWS FROM
דרש
darash
to seek, inquire, or attend to a matter
“search” in this verse is doresh. The line doubles the absence: no one is דּוֹרֵשׁ (doresh, inquiring or searching), and no one is מְבַקֵּשׁ (mevaqqesh, seeking after) the flock. The root also appears in מִדְרָשׁ (midrash, inquiry or exposition), preserving the sense that searching can mean sustained engagement, not a passing glance.
ALSO GROWS
vedarashti: I will search or inquire
וְדָרַשְׁתִּי
This same root appears in Ezekiel 34:11, where the speaker promises to search for the sheep.
midrash: inquiry, study, or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch carries the root’s sense of seeking through careful engagement.
נָפֹצוּ
nāphōtsū
GROWS FROM
נפץ
naphats
to scatter, disperse, or dash apart
This root can carry both dispersal and breaking apart, giving “scattered” a force beyond simply losing direction. The flock is spread across the terrain, with no single point from which it can be gathered.
ALSO GROWS
naphats: to scatter or dash apart
נָפַץ
The basic verb holds together dispersion and separation, the condition described here.
menappets: one who scatters or shatters
מְנַפֵּץ
This form makes the root’s dispersing action visible in an agent.
תִּתְעֶינָה
tit'eynah
GROWS FROM
תעה
ta'ah
to wander, err, or go astray
“wandered” in this verse is tit'eynah. The verb can describe both physical wandering and erring, so the flock’s movement is also a loss of orientation. The verse holds that wandering alongside the vast dispersion and the absence of anyone searching.
ALSO GROWS
ta'iti: I have wandered or gone astray
תָּעִיתִי
Psalm 119:176 uses this root in the image of a lost sheep asking to be sought.
to'eh: one who wanders or strays
תֹּעֶה
This form names the one off course, not merely a step of travel.
THE PATTERN
A flock’s wandering becomes abandonment when no one undertakes to seek it.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.THE THREAD
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.The Hebrew root דרש (darash, “inquire” or “search”) is shared by “search” here and “I will search” in the next promise. The absence named in this verse becomes a first-person undertaking to seek the flock.
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