Ezekiel 34:1-10

Importance of Good Government. But besides moral excellence on the part of its citizens (Ezekiel 33) a state needs good government. This chapter is a very severe indictment of the rulers or kings of Israel in the past, who are compared to shepherds and the figure is maintained throughout the chapter that have neglected or abused the flock. Governors should govern in the interests of the governed; but those shepherds had used their power to feed themselves and not the flock they are even compared in Ezekiel 34:10 to ravenous beasts (notice mouth). It was this misgovernment that in part accounted for the miseries, the defeats, the exile of Israel.