Ezekiel 34 is an allegory of the history of Israel under the monarchy, and a prophecy of the future restoration of the nation. There are many historical allusions that we would have to probe in a thorough exegesis. However, we are only considering it here because of what it says about God, and so we will not follow the other exegetical paths suggested in the text.
Earlier we examined several other passages from the book of Ezekiel that represent Gods as the punitive judge of idolaters in Jerusalem (8:16, 9:11) and as the guarantor of a strict, retributive justice in the lives of individual persons (chap.18). It comes as something of a surprise, therefore, to see the wrathful executioner and impersonal judge displaced by a shepherd eager to rescue, protect, and provision his flock. The metaphor of the shepherd implies many of the qualities suggested by the metaphors of husband and parent in Hosea 2 and 11. The shepherd-image is less satisfactory than the images drawn from family relationships, since human being are symbolizes much more adequately as children or brides than as sheep. Nevertheless, from the side of the shepherd/husband/parent there are common dimensions of commitment and affection that are connoted by all of these metaphors. It is noteworthy that the image of God as the Good Shepherd, which received its classic formulation in Ezekiel 34, became one of the most popular images in later Jewish and Christian piety and iconography.