As I live, says the Lord GOD: As I live is an oath formula that highlights the truth of what God says (for further details on the significance of this oath and how to translate it, see the comments on 5.11). Says the Lord GOD is a solemn pronouncement that emphasizes God speaks these words (see the comments on 5.11). For the Lord GOD, see Ezek 34.2. This whole clause may be rendered “Just as I am alive, I, the Lord Yahweh, declare to you.”
Before he announces the punishment on Israel’s leaders, God inserts two because clauses to repeat and emphasize the reasons for the judgment.
Because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd: This is the first reason for judgment. Since the leaders did not take care of God’s sheep (that is, his people) properly, the wild animals ate the sheep. The Hebrew word for prey usually refers to booty, the goods that soldiers in the victorious army take from the people they defeat in war; this can include human beings, as well as material things (see 7.21). However, this word can also refer to something that animals catch and eat. Here this meaning is more appropriate than material things that someone grabs and takes away, because the context is a picture of the sheep being caught and eaten by wild animals. The wild animals ate the sheep since there was no shepherd (see the comments on Ezek 34.5). This whole sentence may be rendered “My sheep have become what all the wild animals hunt and eat, because there was no shepherd taking care of them.”
And because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep: This is the second reason for God’s judgment on the leaders. Instead of doing their job properly by searching for the wandering sheep, the shepherds took care of themselves and not the sheep. For my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, see Ezek 34.6; for the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, see Ezek 34.2. Since God is addressing the shepherds, some languages may prefer to use second person pronouns to refer to them (so Contemporary English Version). If so, this whole sentence may be rendered “There was no shepherd to go and look for my sheep. Instead, you, my shepherds, have taken care of yourselves. You have not taken care of my sheep.”
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .