Ezekiel 34:27

34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

Psalms 23:1-2

Psalm 23 ¹ 

A psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, ² 

I lack nothing. ³ 

23:2 He takes me to lush pastures, ⁴ 

he leads me to refreshing water. ⁵ 

Psalms 31:8-10

31:8 You do not deliver me over to the power of the enemy;

you enable me to stand ⁶  in a wide open place.

31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!

My eyes grow dim ⁷  from suffering. ⁸ 

I have lost my strength. ⁹ 

31:10 For my life nears its end in pain;

my years draw to a close as I groan. ¹⁰ 

My strength fails me because of ¹¹  my sin,

and my bones become brittle. ¹² 

Isaiah 25:6

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ¹³ 

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 30:23-24

30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,

and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ¹⁵ 

At that time ¹⁶  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

30:24 The oxen and donkeys used in plowing ¹⁷ 

will eat seasoned feed winnowed with a shovel and pitchfork. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 40:11

40:11 Like a shepherd he tends his flock;

he gathers up the lambs with his arm;

he carries them close to his heart; ¹⁹ 

he leads the ewes along.

Jeremiah 31:12-14

31:12 They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.

They will be radiant with joy ²⁰  over the good things the Lord provides,

the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,

the young sheep and calves he has given to them.

They will be like a well-watered garden

and will not grow faint or weary any more.

31:13 The Lord says, ²¹  “At that time young women will dance and be glad.

Young men and old men will rejoice. ²² 

I will turn their grief into gladness.

I will give them comfort and joy in place of their sorrow.

31:14 I will provide the priests with abundant provisions. ²³ 

My people will be filled to the full with the good things I provide.”

Jeremiah 31:25

31:25 I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary

and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint. ²⁴ 

John 10:9

10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, ²⁵  and find pasture. ²⁶ 

Revelation 7:16

7:16 They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, ²⁷ 

[23:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 23. In vv. 1-4 the psalmist pictures the Lord as a shepherd who provides for his needs and protects him from danger. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then extends and develops that metaphor, speaking as if he were a sheep. In vv. 5-6 the metaphor changes as the psalmist depicts a great royal banquet hosted by the Lord. The psalmist is a guest of honor and recipient of divine favor, who enjoys unlimited access to the divine palace and the divine presence.

[23:1]  ² sn The LORD is my shepherd. The opening metaphor suggests the psalmist is assuming the role of a sheep. In vv. 1b-4 the psalmist extends the metaphor and explains exactly how the LORD is like a shepherd to him. At the surface level the language can be understood in terms of a shepherd’s relationship to his sheep. The translation of vv. 1-4 reflects this level. But, of course, each statement also points to an underlying reality.

[23:1]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form is best understood as generalizing; the psalmist highlights his typical or ongoing experience as a result of having the LORD as his shepherd (habitual present use). The next verse explains more specifically what he means by this statement.

[23:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “he makes me lie down in lush pastures.” The Hiphil verb יַרְבִּיצֵנִי (yarbitseniy) has a causative-modal nuance here (see IBHS 445-46 §27.5 on this use of the Hiphil), meaning “allows me to lie down” (see also Jer 33:12). The point is that the shepherd takes the sheep to lush pastures and lets them eat and rest there. Both imperfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing and highlight the psalmist’s typical experience.

[23:2]  ⁵ tn Both genitives in v. 2 indicate an attribute of the noun they modify: דֶּשֶׁא (deshe’) characterizes the pastures as “lush” (i.e., rich with vegetation), while מְנֻחוֹת (mÿnukhot) probably characterizes the water as refreshing. In this case the plural indicates an abstract quality. Some take מְנֻחוֹת in the sense of “still, calm” (i.e., as describing calm pools in contrast to dangerous torrents) but it is unlikely that such a pastoral scene is in view. Shepherds usually watered their sheep at wells (see Gen 29:2-3; Exod 2:16-19). Another option is to take מְנֻחוֹת as “resting places” and to translate, “water of/at the resting places” (i.e., a genitive of location; see IBHS 147-48 §9.5.2e).

[31:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “you cause my feet to stand.”

[31:9]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[31:9]  ⁸ tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

[31:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

[31:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

[31:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “stumbles in.”

[31:10]  ¹² tn Heb “grow weak.”

[25:6]  ¹³ sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[30:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”

[30:23]  ¹⁶ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[30:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground.”

[30:24]  ¹⁸ sn Crops will be so abundant that even the work animals will eat well.

[40:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[31:12]  ²⁰ tn Reading a Qal perfect from the root II נָהַר (nahar; so KBL 509 s.v. and HALOT 639 s.v.) rather than I נָהַר (so BDB 625 s.v.).

[31:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” This phrase has been brought up to the beginning of v. 13 from the end of v. 14 to introduce the transition from third person description by Jeremiah to first person address by the Lord.

[31:13]  ²² tc The translation follows the reading of the LXX (Greek version). The Hebrew reads “will dance and be glad, young men and old men together.” The Greek version presupposes a Qal imperfect of a rare verb (יַחְדּוּ [yakhdu] from the verb חָדָה [khadah]; see BDB 292 s.v. II חָדָה Qal) as opposed to the Hebrew text which reads a common adverb יַחְדָּו (yakhdav). The consonantal text is the same but the vocalization is different. There are no other examples of the syntax of the adverb used this way (i.e., of a compound subject added to a third subject) and the vocalization of the Hebrew text can be explained on the basis of a scribe misvocalizing the text based on his greater familiarity with the adverb.

[31:14]  ²³ tn Heb “I will satiate the priests with fat.” However, the word translated “fat” refers literally to the fat ashes of the sacrifices (see Lev 1:16; 4:2 and cf. BDB 206 s.v. דֶּשֶׁן 2. The word is used more abstractly for “abundance” or “rich food” (see Job 36:16 and BDB 206 s.v. דֶּשֶׁן 1). The people and the priests were prohibited from eating the fat (Lev 7:23-24).

[31:25]  ²⁴ tn The verbs here again emphasize that the actions are as good as done (i.e., they are prophetic perfects; cf. GKC 312-13 §106.n).

[10:9]  ²⁵ tn Since the Greek phrase εἰσέρχομαι καὶ ἐξέρχομαι (eisercomai kai exercomai, “come in and go out”) is in some places an idiom for living or conducting oneself in relationship to some community (“to live with, to live among” [cf. Acts 1:21; see also Num 27:17; 2 Chr 1:10]), it may well be that Jesus’ words here look forward to the new covenant community of believers. Another significant NT text is Luke 9:4, where both these verbs occur in the context of the safety and security provided by a given household for the disciples. See also BDAG 294 s.v. εἰσέρχομαι 1.b.β.

[10:9]  ²⁶ sn That is, pasture land in contrast to cultivated land.

[7:16]  ²⁷ tn An allusion to Isa 49:10. The phrase “burning heat” is one word in Greek (καῦμα, kauma) that refers to a burning, intensely-felt heat. See BDAG 536 s.v.