Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 34

The prophet has yet to pronounce a judgment upon unfaithful rulers, whose punishment will further the good of those whom they have misguided. He shows what the rulers should have been, what they have been, and what in the coming times they shall be when the True King shall reign in the true kingdom. Hence, follows a description of Messiah’s reign.

Shepherds - Not priests or prophets, but rulers and kings (see the Jeremiah 2:8 note). The most ancient title for “ruler” is a monogram that occurs on the oldest monuments discovered in the cuneiform character. In the Assyrian language it became riu (compare Hebrew רעה râ‛âh = shepherd). In the traditions of Berosus we find that Alorus, the first king in the world, received from the Divinity the title of Shepherd. The title, as well as the monogram, was preserved to the latest times of the Assyrian monarchy.

While the distress and misery of the people daily increased, the last kings of Judah exacted more and more from their subjects and lavished more and more on personal luxury and show.

Yahweh is the shepherd of His people. He will do all that the shepherds should have done and did not. These promises—partially fulfilled in the return from Babylon, and in the subsequent prosperity under the Maccabees—point to the ingathering of all nations in the Church of Christ the Good Shepherd. Compare Matthew 18:11; John 10:1–18; Romans 9:25–33.

The cloudy and dark day: contrasted with the day in which the Lord will be among them like a shepherd to gather them together again.

With judgment - It is characteristic of Yahweh as a shepherd that He judges between sheep and sheep, rejecting the proud and accepting the penitent and broken-hearted.