Ezechiel 34:19
And my sheep were fed with that which you had trodden with your feet: and they drank what your feet had troubled.
Open Ezechiel 34:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et oves meæ his quæ conculcata pedibus vestris fuerant, pascebantur : et quæ pedes vestri turbaverant, hæc bibebant.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τὰ πρόβατά μου τὰ πατήματα τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν ἐνέμοντο, καὶ τὸ τεταραγμένον ὕδωρ ὑπὸ τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν ἔπινον;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְצֹאנִ֑י מִרְמַ֤ס רַגְלֵיכֶם֙ תִּרְעֶ֔ינָה וּמִרְפַּ֥שׂ רַגְלֵיכֶ֖ם תִּשְׁתֶּֽינָה
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, That none should enter on a place of government who practise not in life what they have learnt by study
There are some also who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teach the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice. Hence it is that the Lord through the prophet complains of the contemptible knowledge of shepherds, saying, When ye yourselves had drunk most pure water, ye fouled the residue with your feet; and My sheep fed on that which had been trodden by your feet, and drank that which your feet had fouled ( Ezek. xxxiv. 18, 19 ). For indeed the shepherds drink most pure water, when with a right understanding they imbibe the streams of truth. …
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of Pastors
3. But those pastors who did not care for the sheep, those were hirelings who used to feed themselves alone. On this account the Prophet addresses them, saying to them: O ye pastors who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord: Lo! I will visit My sheep as the pastor visits his flock in the day of the whirlwind, and I will require My sheep at your hands. O foolish pastors, with the wool of the sheep do ye clothe yourselves and the flesh of the fatlings do eat, and the sheep ye do not feed. That which was sick ye did not heal, and that which was broken ye did not bind. The weak ye did not strengthen, and the lost and the scattered ye did not gather together. The strong ones and the fatlings ye did guard, but with harshness ye subdued them. The good pastures ye yourselves graze upon, and what remains ye trample with your feet. …