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; ¹ 

he leads the ewes along.

Ezekiel 34:14-15

34:14 In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush ²  pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. 34:15 I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord.

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.

Matthew 23:37

Judgment on Israel

23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ³  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ⁴  How often I have longed ⁵  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁶  you would have none of it! ⁷ 

John 6:50-58

6:50 This ⁸  is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person ⁹  may eat from it and not die. 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread ¹⁰  that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

6:52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus ¹¹  began to argue with one another, ¹²  “How can this man ¹³  give us his flesh to eat?” 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ¹⁵  you have no life ¹⁶  in yourselves. 6:54 The one who eats ¹⁷  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ¹⁸  6:55 For my flesh is true ¹⁹  food, and my blood is true ²⁰  drink. 6:56 The one who eats ²¹  my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. ²²  6:57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes ²³  me will live because of me. 6:58 This ²⁴  is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ²⁵  ate, but then later died. ²⁶  The one who eats ²⁷  this bread will live forever.”

[40:11]  ¹ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[34:14]  ² tn Heb “good.”

[23:37]  ³ sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.

[23:37]  ⁴ tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).

[23:37]  ⁵ sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.

[23:37]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[23:37]  ⁷ tn Grk “you were not willing.”

[6:50]  ⁸ tn Or “Here.”

[6:50]  ⁹ tn Grk “someone” (τις, tis).

[6:51]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And the bread.”

[6:52]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Then the Jews began to argue.” Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the “crowd” mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as “Rabbi” (6:25). See also the note on the phrase “the Jews who were hostile to Jesus” in v. 41.

[6:52]  ¹² tn Grk “with one another, saying.”

[6:52]  ¹³ tn Grk “this one,” “this person.”

[6:53]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ¹⁵ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ¹⁶ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[6:54]  ¹⁷ tn Or “who chews”; Grk ὁ τρώγων (Jo trwgwn). The alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) may simply reflect a preference for one form over the other on the author’s part, rather than an attempt to express a slightly more graphic meaning. If there is a difference, however, the word used here (τρώγω) is the more graphic and vivid of the two (“gnaw” or “chew”).

[6:54]  ¹⁸ sn Notice that here the result (has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day) is produced by eating (Jesus’) flesh and drinking his blood. Compare John 6:40 where the same result is produced by “looking on the Son and believing in him.” This suggests that the phrase here (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood by the phrase in 6:40 (looks on the Son and believes in him).

[6:55]  ¹⁹ tn Or “real.”

[6:55]  ²⁰ tn Or “real.”

[6:56]  ²¹ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:56]  ²² sn Resides in me, and I in him. Note how in John 6:54 eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood produces eternal life and the promise of resurrection at the last day. Here the same process of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood leads to a relationship of mutual indwelling (resides in me, and I in him). This suggests strongly that for the author (and for Jesus) the concepts of ‘possessing eternal life’ and of ‘residing in Jesus’ are virtually interchangeable.

[6:57]  ²³ tn Or “who chews”; Grk “who eats.” Here the translation “consumes” is more appropriate than simply “eats,” because it is the internalization of Jesus by the individual that is in view. On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.

[6:58]  ²⁴ tn Or “This one.”

[6:58]  ²⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[6:58]  ²⁶ tn Grk “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not just like your ancestors ate and died.” The cryptic Greek expression has been filled out in the translation for clarity.

[6:58]  ²⁷ tn Or “who chews.” On the alternation between ἐσθίω (esqiw, “eat,” v. 53) and τρώγω (trwgw, “eats,” vv. 54, 56, 58; “consumes,” v. 57) see the note on “eats” in v. 54.