Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 34:23

"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd." — Ezekiel 34:23 (ASV)

Set up one shepherd. —He is one both with reference to the many evil rulers who have gone before (and this implies the perpetuity of His rule), and also with reference to the two kingdoms of Israel, which are from now on to be forever united in the one Church of God. Obviously, this prophecy can find its accomplishment in no merely human ruler.

My servant David.— The name of David is here put simply, as in Ezekiel 34:24; Ezekiel 37:24–25; Jeremiah 30:9; and Hosea 3:5, instead of the more usual designations of the Messiah as the Son, the Branch, or the Offspring of David. However, there can be no possible doubt about the meaning, any more than there can be about who is meant by Elijah in Malachi 4:5, in view of our Lord’s own interpretation in Matthew 11:14 and Matthew 17:11-14.

Yet it should be remembered, if anyone is inclined to understand this whole prophecy literally, that if one part is to be so understood, the rest must be taken in the same way. If we are to think that the prophet here foretells the literal restoration of the two kingdoms of Israel to their own land, and their union under one governor, then that governor must be David himself.

The absurdity of such a supposition is one important element in showing that the whole is to be understood as a promise of spiritual blessings, and of the gathering of God’s people into His Church as one flock under their Almighty Shepherd .

David, as the head of the theocracy and the ancestor of our Lord after the flesh, constantly appears in the Scriptures as the type of the Messiah. There can be no reasonable doubt that this prophecy must have been so understood, even at the time when it was uttered.