Shepherd

The shepherd is one of scripture's oldest vocations and one of its most enduring images. From the keepers of flocks in the patriarchal narratives to the chief Shepherd whose appearing crowns the faithful, the figure moves from a literal trade among the earliest families into a way of speaking about Yahweh's care for his people, the work of Jesus among the sheep he calls by name, and the guardianship that holds believers until the last day.

The Pastoral Vocation

Shepherding stands at the head of the trades practiced in the line of Adam: "And again she bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground" (Gen 4:2). The patriarchs and their households continued the work. Lot, traveling with Abram, "had flocks, and herds, and tents" (Gen 13:5). Rachel met Jacob at the well because she "came with her father's sheep. For she shepherded them" (Gen 29:9). Jacob's son Joseph, "being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers" (Gen 37:2), and when Jacob's family came down to Egypt the report carried before Pharaoh was that "the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have" (Gen 46:32).

The work itself is hard, exposed labor. Jacob, looking back over twenty years with Laban, sums it up in the same vocabulary of loss and night-watching: "in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes" (Gen 31:40); the ewes and she-goats had not miscarried, the rams of the flock had not been eaten, and "that which was torn of beasts I didn't bring to you; I bore the loss of it; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night" (Gen 31:39). Daily care also meant daily watering at limited supplies. At the well of Haran, Jacob found "three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. And the stone on the well's mouth was great" (Gen 29:2), the local custom holding the stone in place "until all the flocks be gathered together" (Gen 29:8); when Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, Jacob "went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother" (Gen 29:10).

The vocation forms part of the formative experience of Israel's leaders. Moses, fleeing from Egypt, encounters the daughters of the priest of Midian at a watering place; the seven daughters "came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock" (Ex 2:16), and "the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock" (Ex 2:17). He then takes up the work himself: "Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb" (Ex 3:1). Israel's first great king is found the same way. When Samuel asks Jesse for his sons, Jesse answers, "There remains yet the youngest, and, look, he is shepherding the sheep" (1Sam 16:11). David's pastoral routine continues into the Goliath narrative: "And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him" (1Sam 17:20). His own account before Saul gives the trade its sharpest portrait: "Your slave was shepherding his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and struck him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and slew him" (1Sam 17:34-35). Amos uses the same scene as a simile for what survives a divine judgment: "As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so will the sons of Israel be rescued" (Amos 3:12). Other branches of Israel kept the same work going: the Simeonites "went to the entrance of Gedor, even to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks" (1Chr 4:39).

The flock had its rhythms — rest at noon, the rod-passing tally, the watching dogs. The Song of Songs frames noontime rest as the place a lover would seek the beloved: "Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, Where you shepherd [your flock], Where you make [it] to rest at noon" (Song 1:7). Jeremiah's restoration oracle lays the same scene over Judah's land: "Yet again there will be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down" (Jer 33:12). The flock was also counted, animal by animal, under the keeper's rod — the law applied the practice to the tithe: "all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth will be holy to Yahweh" (Lev 27:32) — and Jeremiah carried the same image into the same restoration promise: "in all the cities of Judah, will the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says Yahweh" (Jer 33:13). Job's contempt for those who mock him is measured against the same rural scale: their fathers were not even fit to set "with the dogs of my flock" (Job 30:1).

The vocation was not honored everywhere. Joseph instructed his brothers to declare their trade plainly to Pharaoh, "for every shepherd is disgusting to the Egyptians" (Gen 46:34) — a culture-line reason for settling them in Goshen, away from the cities of the Egyptians.

Sheepfolds, Towers, and Pasture

The flocks needed enclosures, and scripture remembers them in Israel's settled life and in its songs. When the Reubenites and Gadites asked for the territory east of the Jordan, the request was framed in pastoral terms: "We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones" (Num 32:16). Moses' answer reused the same language: "Build yourselves cities for your⁺ little ones, and folds for your⁺ sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your⁺ mouth" (Num 32:24). The fold could become a place of reproach for a tribe that lingered there in a time of war. Deborah's song asks of Reuben, "Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the pipings for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben, There were great searchings of heart" (Judg 5:16). The same word colors the memory of David's calling: "He chose David also his slave, And took him from the sheepfolds" (Ps 78:70). Wilderness sheepcotes also appear in the king's own travels: Saul, pursuing David, "came to the sheepcotes by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were dwelling in the innermost parts of the cave" (1Sam 24:3). Yahweh's word to David through Nathan reaches back to the same setting: "I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, that you should be leader over my people, over Israel" (2Sam 7:8).

Towers belonged to the same world. Uzziah "built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle" (2Chr 26:10), and Micah lifts the image into prophecy: "And you, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem" (Mic 4:8).

Yahweh, Shepherd of His People

The pastoral image becomes a way of confessing what Yahweh is to those who belong to him. Jacob's blessing on Joseph already names the figure: his bow remained firm and his hands agile "by [the Speech of] the Mighty One of Jacob, Israel's shepherd and rock" (Gen 49:24). Asaph remembers the exodus in the same key: "But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies" (Ps 78:52-53). Jeremiah carries the figure into the regathering: "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock" (Jer 31:10). And Isaiah gives it its tenderest expression: "Like a shepherd, he will shepherd his flock; he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom; [and] will gently lead those that have their young" (Isa 40:11).

The controlling text is Psalm 23. The opening line states the relationship and what it secures: "Yahweh is my shepherd; I will not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters" (Ps 23:1-2). The psalm carries the figure through restoration, guidance, and presence in danger: "He restores my soul: He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for [your Speech is with] me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me" (Ps 23:3-4). It ends in the abundance of a host's table and the permanence of the dwelling: "Surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever" (Ps 23:6). Psalm 80 addresses the same figure directly: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who sit [above] the cherubim, shine forth" (Ps 80:1).

The people answer in the same language. Asaph cries out, "O God, why have you cast [us] off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?" (Ps 74:1). And the people answer in another psalm with a vow: "So we your people and sheep of your pasture Will give you thanks forever: We will show forth your praise to all generations" (Ps 79:13).

The Failed Shepherds and the Promise of One

Where the figure is used of Israel's leaders — prophets, priests, princes — it is most often used to indict them. Ezekiel 34 develops the indictment at length. The word comes against "the shepherds of Israel who have been shepherding themselves," who eat the milk and clothe themselves with the wool but "don't shepherd the sheep" (Ezek 34:2-3); "the diseased you⁺ have not strengthened, neither have you⁺ healed that which was sick, neither have you⁺ bound up that which was broken, neither have you⁺ brought back that which was driven away, neither have you⁺ sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor you⁺ have ruled over them" (Ezek 34:4). The result is a scattered flock: "they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the beasts of the field" (Ezek 34:5).

Yahweh's response is to take the work into his own hand. "Look, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from shepherding the sheep" (Ezek 34:10). "I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered" (Ezek 34:11-12). And the work then takes the form Israel's leaders had failed: "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down" (Ezek 34:15); "I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick" (Ezek 34:16). At the same time, the chapter looks ahead to one human shepherd standing in the line of David: "I will set up another shepherd over them, and he will shepherd them, even my slave David; he will shepherd them, and he will be their shepherd" (Ezek 34:23).

The title can also reach a foreign king. Of Cyrus, Yahweh says, "[He is] my shepherd, and will perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She will be built; and of the temple, Your foundation will be laid" (Isa 44:28).

The Stricken Shepherd

Zechariah carries the image into a coming judgment that falls on the shepherd himself: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the [prominent] man who is my associate, says Yahweh of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand on the little ones" (Zech 13:7). Jesus takes the same words on his own lips on the night of his betrayal: "All you⁺ will be offended: for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered abroad" (Mark 14:27).

The Good Shepherd

In John 10 Jesus draws the figure into a self-claim. He begins by marking the legitimate way into the enclosure: "Truly, truly, I say to you⁺, He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1). The genuine shepherd, by contrast, has the porter's recognition and the sheep's: "To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out" (John 10:3). The relation runs both ways through the voice: "When he has put forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him: for they don't know the voice of strangers" (John 10:4-5). Jesus then names himself with two figures from the same pastoral world. He is the door: "I am the door; by me if any man enters in, he will live, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture" (John 10:9). And he is the shepherd whose defining act is to die for the sheep: "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his soul for the sheep" (John 10:11). The hireling, who has no ownership of the sheep, "watches the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters [them]" (John 10:12). The good shepherd, by contrast, is bound to the flock by mutual knowing: "I know my own, and my own know me, even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my soul for the sheep" (John 10:14-15). The same passage opens the flock outward beyond its first boundary: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: I must also bring them, and they will hear my voice; and they will become one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16).

Guardian and Returner of Souls

After the resurrection the shepherd image describes the ongoing protection of the people who belong to Christ. Peter writes to those who had wandered, "For you⁺ were like sheep that go astray; but have now been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your⁺ souls" (1Pet 2:25). The guarding work continues through the present life of the church. Paul tells the Thessalonians, "But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you⁺, and guard you⁺ from the evil [one]" (2Thess 3:3), and he speaks for himself in the same key: "I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day" (2Tim 1:12). The closing doxology of Jude points to the same guardianship at its limit: "Now to him who is able to guard you⁺ from stumbling, and to set you⁺ before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24).

The Great and Chief Shepherd

The title takes its highest form in the language of resurrection and consummation. The benediction of Hebrews places the shepherd at the center of God's act in Christ: "Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, [even] our Lord Jesus" (Heb 13:20). Peter looks ahead to the final appearing: "And when the chief Shepherd will be manifested, you⁺ will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (1Pet 5:4). And in the vision of John the figure is fused with the figure of the slain Lamb: "for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to fountains of waters of life: and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Rev 7:17).