Ezekiel 34:11

The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.

“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you.

But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ ”

“Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.

She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”

Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them; for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

“Yahweh kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and brings up.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”

Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.

Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Yahweh says: “Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city will be built on its own hill, and the palace will be inhabited in its own place.

Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice,

Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.

For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,

God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:

“Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.

and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.

In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”

For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me,

“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

“ ‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.

You shall say before Yahweh your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.

Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?

When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”

You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.

Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.

God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from death.

He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”

I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.

Yes, since the day was, I am he. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”

Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;

Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.

For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!

but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.”

“I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

“In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.

Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.

‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Behold, I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them. I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.

then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.

Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to Yahweh, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.

“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.

I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.

I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.

I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him and he shall make his way prosperous.

“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?

The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, in addition to his own who are gathered.”

“I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they will be fruitful and multiply.

therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.

therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

“I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.” ’

I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture; they will swarm with people.

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.

and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.

For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.