The next prophecy dealt ultimately with the one Shepherd. It opened with an indictment of the false shepherds through whom all these evil things had happened to the people. Their sin had been that they had ministered to themselves. Feeding themselves and clothing themselves, they had not fed the sheep, neither had they ministered to the diseased and the sick and the broken and the needy. The result of the failure of the shepherds was that the people were scattered, and had become a prey of the beasts of the field. Because of all this, Jehovah was against the shepherds, and would deliver the sheep.
That deliverance the prophet then described in language full of beauty. Jehovah said, "I Myself, even I, will search... and seek... and deliver... and bring them out... and gather them... bring them in... and feed them... and cause them to lie down... and bind up... and strengthen."
Continuing the same message, the prophet proceeded to declare that the action of Jehovah would be not merely delivering, but also governing. In the gracious words declaring His shepherd care, the last statement was, "I will feed them in judgment." That is explained in the following paragraph, in which the discrimination and administration of Jehovah are manifest, in that He judges between cattle and cattle, and prevents the strong from treading down the pasture to the injury of the weak.
Finally, there was the gracious and glorious promise of the one Shepherd, for the description of whom the prophet borrowed the name of the king who had most perfectly realized in the history of the people the purpose of God. In the fulness of time the one Shepherd appeared, and in a mystery of iniquity the sheep whom He would have gathered flung Him out to the beasts. The men of Israel, "by the hands of lawless men did crucify and slay," and they have been scattered more widely and terribly than ever.