Therefore thus saith the Lord God to you: Behold, I myself will judge between the fat cattle and the lean.

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah to them: Lo, I, even I, have judged between fat sheep and lean sheep.

For this reason the Lord has said to them, Truly, I, even I, will be judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.

Because of this, thus says the Lord God to you: Behold, I myself am judging between the fat cattle and the lean.

Yahweh having promised to be a Ruler of His people, the administration of the divine kingdom is now described, as carried on by One King, the representative of David, whose dominion should fulfill all the promises originally made to the man after God's own heart. Ezekiel does not so much add to, as explain and develope, the original promise; and as the complete fulfillment of the spiritual blessings, which the prophets were guided to proclaim, was manifestly never realized in any temporal prosperity of the Jews, and never could and never can be realized in any earthly kingdom, we recognize throughout the Sacred Volume the one subject of all prophecy - the Righteous King, the Anointed Prince, the Son and the Lord of David.

I will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle - Between the rich and the poor; those who fare sumptuously every day and those who have not the necessaries of life.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them,.... To the rams and he goats of the flock, that use the pastures and defile the waters after this manner, and make them unfit for the lesser cattle; or that use the poor people of God after this sort:
behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. The Targum is,
"between the rich man and the poor man;''
this is repeated, and in very strong terms, for the confirmation of it: this the Lord promised to do, and he has done it by his son, to whom he committed all judgment; and who, in the days of his flesh, made a difference between those who were full of themselves, self-righteous persons; who were self-sufficient, and needed not repentance, nor any other righteousness but their own; who trusted in themselves, and despised others: and may be meant by the "fat cattle": and between those who were low and mean in their own eyes, humble and meek, weary and heavy laden, hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of another: now for judgment did Christ come, that they which see not might see, and those who saw might be made blind; he called the one, and not the other, to repentance; made known the things of the Gospel to babes, and hid them from the wise and prudent; rejected the one, and had compassion on the other; see John 5:22, and when he comes a second time, he will judge between these, and separate them; and set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left, Matthew 25:31.

fat . . . lean--the rich oppressors . . . the humble poor.

I will judge - I will vindicate the poor. The fat cattle - The rich. The lean - The poor.