Jeremiah 23:1

New Leaders over a Regathered Remnant

23:1 The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³ 

Jeremiah 49:32

49:32 Their camels will be taken as plunder.

Their vast herds will be taken as spoil.

I will scatter to the four winds

those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples. ⁴ 

I will bring disaster against them

from every direction,” says the Lord. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 50:17

50:17 “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep

which lions have chased away.

First the king of Assyria devoured them. ⁶ 

Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 34:5-6

34:5 They were scattered because they had no shepherd, and they became food for every wild beast. ⁸  34:6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over the entire face of the earth with no one looking or searching for them.

Ezekiel 34:12

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. ⁹ 

Zechariah 13:7

13:7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,

against the man who is my associate,”

says the Lord who rules over all.

Strike the shepherd that the flock may be scattered; ¹⁰ 

I will turn my hand against the insignificant ones.

[23:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:1]  ² sn Heb This particle once again introduces a judgment speech. The indictment is found in v. 1 and the announcement of judgment in v. 2. This leads into an oracle of deliverance in vv. 3-4. See also the note on the word “judged” in 22:13.

[23:1]  ³ tn Heb “Woe to the shepherds who are killing and scattering the sheep of my pasture.” See the study note on 22:13 for the significance of “Sure to be judged” (Heb “Woe”) See the study note for the significance of the metaphor introduced here.

[49:32]  ⁴ tn See the translator’s note at Jer 9:26 and compare the usage in 9:26 and 25:23.

[49:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:17]  ⁶ sn The king of Assyria devoured them. This refers to the devastation wrought on northern Israel by the kings of Assyria beginning in 738 b.c. when Tiglath Pileser took Galilee and the Transjordanian territories and ending with the destruction and exile of the people of Samaria by Sargon in 722 b.c.

[50:17]  ⁷ tn The verb used here only occurs this one time in the Hebrew Bible. It is a denominative from the Hebrew word for “bones” (עֶצֶם, ’etsem). BDB 1126 s.v. עֶָצַם, denom Pi, define it as “break his bones.” HALOT 822 s.v. II עָצַם Pi defines it as “gnaw on his bones.”

[34:5]  ⁸ tn As a case of dittography, the MT repeats “and they were scattered” at the end of the verse.

[34:12]  ⁹ sn The imagery may reflect the overthrow of the Israelites by the Babylonians in 587/6 b.c.

[13:7]  ¹⁰ sn Despite the NT use of this text to speak of the scattering of the disciples following Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt 26:31; Mark 14:27), the immediate context of Zechariah suggests that unfaithful shepherds (kings) will be punished by the Lord precisely so their flocks (disobedient Israel) can be scattered (cf. Zech 11:6, 8, 9, 16). It is likely that Jesus drew on this passage merely to make the point that whenever shepherds are incapacitated, sheep will scatter. Thus he was not identifying himself with the shepherd in this text (the shepherd in the Zechariah text is a character who is portrayed negatively).