Isaiah 65:1

The Lord Will Distinguish Between Sinners and the Godly

65:1 “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; ¹ 

I appeared to those who did not look for me. ² 

I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’

to a nation that did not invoke ³  my name.

Ezekiel 34:11-16

34:11 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. 34:12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy, dark day. ⁴  34:13 I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land. 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 ⁵  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. 34:16 I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them – with judgment!

Matthew 18:11-13

18:11 [[EMPTY]] ⁶  18:12 What do you think? If someone ⁷  owns a hundred ⁸  sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? ⁹  18:13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, ¹⁰  he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Luke 15:4-5

15:4 “Which one ¹¹  of you, if he has a hundred ¹²  sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture ¹³  and go look for ¹⁴  the one that is lost until he finds it? ¹⁵  15:5 Then ¹⁶  when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Luke 19:10

19:10 For the Son of Man came ¹⁷  to seek and to save the lost.”

John 4:23

4:23 But a time ¹⁸  is coming – and now is here ¹⁹  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ²⁰  such people to be ²¹  his worshipers. ²² 

John 10:16

10:16 I have ²³  other sheep that do not come from ²⁴  this sheepfold. ²⁵  I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, ²⁶  so that ²⁷  there will be one flock and ²⁸  one shepherd.

[65:1]  ¹ tn Heb “I allowed myself to be sought by those who did not ask.”

[65:1]  ² tn Heb “I allowed myself to be found by those who did not seek.”

[65:1]  ³ tn Heb “call out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “call on.”

[34:12]  ⁴ sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6 b.c.

[34:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “good.”

[18:11]  ⁶ tc The most important mss (א B L* Θ* Ë^1,13 33 892* pc e ff¹ sy^s sa) do not include 18:11 “For the Son of Man came to save the lost.” The verse is included in D L^mg W Θ^c 078^vid Ï lat sy^c,p,h, but is almost certainly not original, being borrowed, as it were, from the parallel in Luke 19:10. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

[18:12]  ⁷ tn Grk “a certain man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[18:12]  ⁸ sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

[18:12]  ⁹ sn Look for the one that went astray. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

[18:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn Grk “What man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[15:4]  ¹² sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

[15:4]  ¹³ tn Or “desert,” but here such a translation might suggest neglect of the 99 sheep left behind.

[15:4]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “go after,” but in contemporary English the idiom “to look for” is used to express this.

[15:4]  ¹⁵ sn Until he finds it. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

[15:5]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[19:10]  ¹⁷ sn The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost is Jesus’ mission succinctly defined. See Luke 15:1-32.

[4:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “an hour.”

[4:23]  ¹⁹ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

[4:23]  ²⁰ sn See also John 4:27.

[4:23]  ²¹ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

[4:23]  ²² tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

[10:16]  ²³ tn Grk “And I have.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “that do not belong to”; Grk “that are not of.”

[10:16]  ²⁵ sn The statement I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold almost certainly refers to Gentiles. Jesus has sheep in the fold who are Jewish; there are other sheep which, while not of the same fold, belong to him also. This recalls the mission of the Son in 3:16-17, which was to save the world – not just the nation of Israel. Such an emphasis would be particularly appropriate to the author if he were writing to a non-Palestinian and primarily non-Jewish audience.

[10:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “they will hear my voice.”

[10:16]  ²⁷ tn Grk “voice, and.”

[10:16]  ²⁸ tn The word “and” is not in the Greek text, but must be supplied to conform to English style. In Greek it is an instance of asyndeton (omission of a connective), usually somewhat emphatic.