The Shepherd · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Shepherd
Everybody knows this picture as a comfort, and it is one. But the largest shepherd passages in the Bible are not comforts — they are prosecutions. Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 are God suing the men He put in charge of His people. The tenderness of Isaiah 40 and John 10 is real, and it arrives on the far side of that lawsuit.
What It Stands For
— responsibility for lives that cannot manage on their ownA shepherd in the ancient Near East was not a pastoral ornament. He was a young man, often the youngest in the family, who lived outdoors with animals that had no defences, no sense of direction, and no ability to right themselves once they were down. The job was unglamorous, dangerous and continuous, and it was the standard image for kingship across the whole region long before Israel used it.
What Israel did with the image is the interesting part. Other nations used it to flatter a king. Scripture mostly uses it to hold one to account. The Hebrew verb רָעָה ra’ah (H7462) simply means to tend or graze a flock — an ordinary farming word — and the prophets use it to ask an unglamorous question of powerful men: are the animals fed?
The one thing worth noticing before anything else
Sheep are not in this picture as a compliment. They are in it because they are the animal that gets lost standing still. Every tender line in the symbol depends on that being true — Isaiah’s carrying, Ezekiel’s searching, the ninety-nine left on the hill. Remove the helplessness and the comfort goes with it.
Its Presentation Through Scripture
— nineteen stops, in canon order — and Scripture's own links markedThe walk below is the whole sweep. Two of its stops have studies of their own and are deliberately given a single line each here rather than a second treatment: Psalm 23 and John 10.
Later she gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.
The first shepherd in Scripture is Abel, in the fourth chapter, and the first thing that happens to him is that he is killed by his brother. The image starts under a shadow.
Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
The first time God is called a shepherd, it is a dying man's summary of his own life — not a title given from heaven but a conclusion drawn from a hundred and forty-seven years.
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Moses is keeping sheep when the bush burns. So is David when Samuel arrives, and so are the men outside Bethlehem when the sky opens. Scripture keeps putting its announcements in front of shepherds.
“May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”
Moses asks for a successor in shepherd language, and gives the reason: so the congregation will not be as sheep with no shepherd. Leaderlessness is the danger the whole image exists to name.
Even in times past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them back. And to you the LORD said, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be ruler over them.’”
The tribes crown David with a sentence God had used first: you shall shepherd My people. Kingship in Israel is defined as shepherding at the moment it is handed over.
Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
A national prayer, not a personal one — the Shepherd of Israel who leads Joseph like a flock. Psalm 23 is the same picture with one sheep in it, and it has its own study.
He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
In the middle of the chapter about the God who measures the oceans in His hand, the same God carries lambs in His arms and goes slowly for the sake of the ones nursing.
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD.
The first of the two great prosecutions. The charge is not incompetence but scattering — the shepherds drove away the flock they were given.
I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.
And the promise attached to it: shepherds who will actually feed them, and a flock that no longer has to be afraid. The remedy for bad shepherds, in Jeremiah, is good ones.
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock? You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
The second prosecution, and the longest shepherd passage in the Bible. It is an itemised list of things not done — the weak not strengthened, the sick not healed, the lost not sought.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
Then the reversal, and it is the hinge of the whole symbol: God does not send someone. He says I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.
I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
And then, having said He will do it Himself, He sets one shepherd over them and calls him David — four centuries after David died.
Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,against the man who is My Companion,declares the LORD of Hosts.Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered,and I will turn My hand against the little ones.
The strangest verse in the set: the sword is called against God's own shepherd, and the man is named as God's fellow. Jesus quotes it about Himself on the night He is arrested.
When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus looks at a crowd and sees Numbers 27 and Ezekiel 34 standing in front of Him — sheep without a shepherd. The word for what He felt is the strongest one Greek has.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
He takes the title, in the middle of a chapter that is deliberately built out of Ezekiel 34 — and He adds the one thing no shepherd in the Old Testament was ever asked for.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Other sheep, not of this fold, and one flock under one shepherd. Ezekiel had said one shepherd; John reports Him saying it about a flock larger than the one He was standing in.
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
Paul hands the image on, to elders, at a dockside, in tears — and attaches to it the most expensive clause in the New Testament's job description for a leader.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The great Shepherd of the sheep, brought again from the dead. The title survives the resurrection — He is not called it in the past tense.
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
The last word on the symbol, written by the man who was told three times to feed the sheep: shepherd the flock, not for money, not by force, and remember that the Chief Shepherd is still coming.
The God which fed me all my life long - Jacob is now standing on the verge of eternity, with his faith strong in God.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Genesis 48:15
And that He also calls us lambs, the Spirit by the mouth of Isaiah is an unimpeachable witness: "He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs with His arm,"—using the figurative appellation of lambs, which are still more tender than sheep, to express simplicity.
Clement of Alexandria· The Instructor, Book 1, 215Greek father
Isaiah 40:11
Clement is reading closely and it is worth slowing down for. Isaiah does not say sheep in the middle clause; he says lambs, and then adds that the shepherd leads gently the ones with young. The verse is graded. It notices that a flock moves at the speed of its weakest member, and says God does too.
feed--including all a shepherd's care--"tend" (Eze 34:23; 1Pe 2:25). carry--applicable to Messiah's restoration of Israel, as sheep scattered in all lands, and unable to move of themselves to their own land
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Isaiah 40:11
The Two Prosecutions
— the largest shepherd texts in the Bible are complaints about shepherdsIf you counted verses rather than memories, the Bible’s shepherd material would come out overwhelmingly negative. Jeremiah 23 opens with a woe. Ezekiel 34 runs for thirty-one verses and spends the first ten of them itemising neglect. This is the part of the symbol that gets left out of the greeting cards, and it is the part that gives the rest its weight.
Wo be unto the pastors - There shall a curse fall on the kings, princes, priests, and prophets; who, by their vicious conduct and example, have brought desolation upon the people.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Jeremiah 23:1
The "shepherds" are not prophets or priests, but rulers who sought in their government their own selfish ends, not the good of the people ruled.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Ezekiel 34:2
Both commentators make the same identification, and it matters for reading the chapters honestly: the shepherds under indictment are the men in charge — kings, princes, and the religious leadership with them. Jerome, reading Ezekiel in the fifth century, refuses to let the charge stay safely in the past and turns it immediately on the clergy of his own church.
- You have not strengthened the weak.I will strengthen the sick.
- You have not healed the sick.I will bind up the broken.
- You have not bound up the broken.I will bring back the strayed.
- You have not brought back the strayed.I will seek the lost.
- You have not sought the lost.I will feed them on the mountains of Israel.
- You fed yourselves and not the flock.I Myself will search for My sheep.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.The hinge. Not 'I will appoint better men' — the sentence turns on a pronoun.
And it is said first: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who, although they should feed the Lord's flock and provide for its salvation, hasten to satisfy their own luxury.
Jerome· Commentary on Ezekiel, 420Latin father
Ezekiel 34:2
But when the great pastor, the chief of pastors, comes, he will call and visit his sheep and will take knowledge of his flock. And he will bring forward those pastors, and will extract an account from them and will condemn them for their deeds. And those who fed the sheep well, them the chief of pastors will cause to rejoice and to inherit life and rest.
Aphrahat the Persian Sage· Demonstrations 10:3, 345Syriac
Ezekiel 34:2
Augustine, preaching on Ezekiel 34 to his own congregationSermon 46 — and he is not preaching about somebody else
Augustine took Ezekiel 34 as a sermon text and applied it to the office he himself held. The distinction he draws is one of the clearest sentences ever written about Christian leadership:
“You see, we whom the Lord has deigned, thanks to no merits of ours, to set in this high station (about which a very strict account indeed has to be rendered) have two things about us that must be clearly distinguished: one, that we are Christians, the other, that we are placed in charge. Being Christians is for our sake; being in charge is for yours. It is to our advantage that we are Christians, only to yours that we are in charge.”
That is the shepherd symbol working correctly. The office is not a privilege that happens to carry duties; the office is the duties, and it exists for the people it is over.
Where It Points
— one shepherd, named David four centuries after DavidI will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.Ezekiel is writing in Babylon in the sixth century BC. David has been dead for four hundred years.
This is the verse the whole page has been walking toward, and its strangeness is easy to miss. God has just said He will shepherd the flock Himself. Nine verses later He sets one shepherd over them and gives that shepherd a dead king’s name. Both statements stand, and the New Testament’s answer to how is a Person.
One shepherd - Christ, the great good, chief, only shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep. My servant David - The seed of David, the beloved one, who was typified by David, and is in other places called by his name, as Jer. xxx, 9 chap. xxxvii, 24 Isaiah xxxvii, 35 Hosea iii, 5. He shall feed - Do all the office of a good and faithful shepherd, and that forever.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Ezekiel 34:23
David also is called the Christ, as when Ezekiel prophesied to the shepherds and added, in the person of God, "I will raise up David my servant, who will shepherd them." For the patriarch David will not be raised up to shepherd the saints, but Christ.
Origen of Alexandria· Commentary on the Gospel of John 1:146, 253Greek father
Ezekiel 34:23
Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,against the man who is My Companion,declares the LORD of Hosts.Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered,and I will turn My hand against the little ones.Quoted by Jesus about Himself in Matthew 26:31, on the walk to Gethsemane.
O sword - Afflictions, persecutions, and the cross. My shepherd - Who is my faithful shepherd, and will lay down his life for my sheep. My fellow - This speaks Christ; man with us, and God with his father, God-man in one person.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Zechariah 13:7
The Hebrew word Wesley is pressing is amiti— a term for a near associate, an equal, the man beside you. It is used almost entirely in Leviticus of one Israelite’s relation to another. Here God uses it of the shepherd He is about to strike.
What Scripture says outright
Where the New Testament makes the connection in its own words.
- John 10:11
Jesus takes the title outright — and the chapter around it is stitched from Ezekiel 34, down to the scattered flock and the one shepherd.
- Matthew 26:31
He quotes Zechariah 13:7 about Himself, hours before it happens, and tells the disciples they are the sheep in it.
- Hebrews 13:20
“That great Shepherd of the sheep” — the title given after the resurrection, not before it.
- 1 Peter 5:4
“Chief Shepherd” — a word found nowhere else in the Greek Bible, coined to say that every other shepherd is under one.
What readers have heard in it
Readings worth knowing, named as readings.
- Genesis 4:2
That Abel the shepherd, killed by his brother, is the symbol’s first shadow of Christ. An old and widespread reading; Genesis itself draws no such line, and Hebrews 11 praises Abel for his faith and his offering rather than for his trade.
- Psalm 23
That every detail of the psalm — rod, staff, table, oil — maps onto a specific practice of Palestinian shepherding. Some of it is well attested; much of the familiar version comes from one twentieth-century devotional book and is repeated as though it were ancient evidence.
- Ezekiel 34:23
That “My servant David” means a literal resurrected David reigning in the millennium. It is a serious reading held by serious teachers. Origen and Wesley both take it as a name for the Messiah instead; the page gives both and settles neither.
And Then He Hands It Over
— the symbol does not stop at Christ — it is given to ordinary menThe last movement of the symbol is the one most often skipped. Having been prosecuted in Jeremiah, taken up by God in Ezekiel and claimed by Jesus in John, the shepherd image is handed straight back to human beings — to elders, in two of the most sober passages in the New Testament.
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.Paul's farewell at Miletus, to the elders of Ephesus.
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.Written by the man Jesus told three times to feed the sheep.
Here Peter is telling the leaders of the church exactly what the Lord told him: "Feed my sheep."
Hilary of Arles· Introductory Commentary on 1 Peter, 449Latin father
1 Peter 5:2
In the words "and when the Chief Shepherd appears," the conjunction "and" is put in place of "so that," that is, so that when the Chief Shepherd appears, you may receive the crown of incorruption.
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on 1 Peter, 1107Eastern Orthodox
1 Peter 5:4
Wesley on 'not for filthy gain' — the sharpest note on this pageExplanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755
“Not for filthy gain - Which, if it be the motive of acting, is filthy beyond expression. O consider this, ye that leave one flock and go to another, merely because there is more gain, a large salary! Is it not astonishing that men can see no harm in this? that it is not only practiced, but avowed, all over the nation?”
It is printed here because it is exactly the register Ezekiel 34 is written in, and because a page about shepherds that never once makes a reader uncomfortable has not described the Bible’s use of the image.
Augustineputs the same weight on it from the other side, writing to his own people: “We are placed over you; you are the flock of God. Consider and see that our dangers are greater than yours, and pray for us, for this becomes both us and you, that we may give a good account of you to the Chief Shepherd and Head over us all”
The Voices
— named, with the work to go and readThe best writing on this symbol is pastoral rather than technical, and it comes from men who held the office and knew what the text was asking of them: Augustine preaching Ezekiel 34 at his own congregation and refusing to make it about someone else; Aphrahat in fourth-century Persia on the audit the chief of pastors will hold; Jerome turning the woe on his own clergy; Wesley, seventeen centuries later, still naming the salary. Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia carry the reading of the one shepherd over two peoples, and Clement of Alexandria supplies the gentlest note on the page, on Isaiah’s lambs.
One flock, and what it is notTheodore of Mopsuestia and Theophylact on John 10:16
Theodore of Mopsuestia: This sentence alludes to those among the Gentiles who will believe, because many among the Gentiles as well as many among the Jews are destined to gather together into a single church and to acknowledge one shepherd and one lord, who is Christ.
Theophylact of Ohrid: For there is one sign of baptism for all, and one Shepherd, even the Word of God.
Both are describing addition, not replacement — Gentiles brought in to one flock alongside believing Israel, which is the same picture Paul draws with an olive tree in Romans 11 and a corner in Ephesians 2. Where that is worked out in full is why God is not finished with Israel.
Where Marcus Lands
A charge sheet in Ezekiel, a sword in Zechariah, a crowd that looked like sheep without anyone in charge of them — and a Chief Shepherd who has not yet appeared.
Where to Go Next
— grouped, because a pile of titles is not a hand-offThe shepherd, and the studies around it
Where the shepherd is the whole study
- The Good ShepherdJohn 10 at full length — the door, the hireling, and the life laid down.
- The Lord Is My ShepherdPsalm 23 line by line, and what the familiar shepherding details actually rest on.
- The Lost SheepThe ninety-nine left on the hill, and who Jesus told the parable to.
- The Shepherds and the AngelsWhy the announcement came to men working nights with animals.
Where the office is at stake
- The ChurchWhat the flock is now, how it is led, and by whom.
- Spiritual AuthorityThe harder questions Ezekiel 34 raises about men in charge.
- False TeachersThe New Testament's own version of the prophets' indictment.
- David the Shepherd KingThe man the title was given to, and the one Ezekiel names four centuries later.
Where the picture goes on
- The LambThe other half of the flock imagery — and the shepherd who became one.
- Why God Is Not Finished with IsraelOne flock and one shepherd, read as addition rather than replacement.
- The Second ComingWhere the Chief Shepherd's appearing belongs.
- The Symbolism of ScriptureThe whole index — every picture the Bible thinks in, in one place.
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: