They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts.
The prophecy of this chapter is not dated, nor any of those that follow it, till ch. 40. It is most probable that it was delivered after the completing of Jerusalem's destruction, when it would be very seasonable to enquire into the causes of it. I.
Commenting on Ezekiel 34:1-6
And they were scattered because there is no shepherd,.... No good one; there were shepherds, but they were idol shepherds, good for nothing, and it was all one as if there were none: so, in Christ's time, there were the Scribes and Pharisees; yet, since these did not feed the people with wholesome doctrine, they are said to be as sheep without a shepherd, and...
scattered, because . . . no shepherd--that is, none worthy of the name, though there were some called shepherds (Kg1 22:17; Mat 9:36). Compare Mat 26:31, where the sheep were scattered when the true Shepherd was smitten. God calls them "My sheep"; for they were not, as the shepherds treated them, their patrimony whereby to "feed themselves." meat to all . . .