17. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.
18. Was it not enough for you to graze on the best pasture, that you had to trample the rest of your pastures with your hooves? Or to drink the clearest water, that you had to pollute the rest with your hooves?
19. Thus my flock had to graze on what your hooves had trampled and drink what your hooves had polluted.
20. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will judge between the fat and the lean.
21. Because you push with flank and shoulder, and butt all the weak sheep with your horns until you drive them off,
22. I will save my flock so they can no longer be plundered; I will judge between one sheep and another.
23. I will appoint one shepherd over them to pasture them, my servant David; he shall pasture them and be their shepherd.
24. I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince in their midst. I, the Lord, have spoken.
25. I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the country of wild beasts so they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests.
26. I will settle them around my hill and send rain in its season, the blessing of abundant rain.
27. The trees of the field shall bear their fruits, and the land its crops, and they shall dwell securely on their own soil. They shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the power of those who enslaved them.
28. They shall no longer be plundered by the nations nor will wild beasts devour them, but they shall dwell securely, with no one to frighten them.
29. I will prepare for them peaceful fields for planting so they are never again swept away by famine in the land or bear taunts from the nations.
30. Thus they shall know that I, the Lord, their God, am with them, and that they are my people, the house of Israel—oracle of the Lord God.
31. Yes, you are my flock: you people are the flock of my pasture, and I am your God—oracle of the Lord God.