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. ¹ 

Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. ² 

Deuteronomy 30:4

30:4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, ³  from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.

Deuteronomy 32:26

The Weakness of Other Gods

32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ⁴ 

I want to make people forget they ever existed.

Isaiah 27:12

27:12 At that time ⁵  the Lord will shake the tree, ⁶  from the Euphrates River ⁷  to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. ⁸ 

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; ⁹ 

he leads the ewes along.

Isaiah 54:7

54:7 “For a short time I abandoned ¹⁰  you,

but with great compassion I will gather you.

Ezekiel 5:2

5:2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.

Ezekiel 5:10

5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ¹¹  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ¹²  to the winds. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 11:16

11:16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little ¹⁴  sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.’

Ezekiel 20:34

20:34 I will bring you out from the nations, and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage!

Micah 2:12

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ¹⁵ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ¹⁶ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ¹⁷ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹⁸ 

Micah 4:6

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. ¹⁹ 

Zephaniah 3:19

3:19 Look, at that time I will deal with those who mistreated you.

I will rescue the lame sheep ²⁰ 

and gather together the scattered sheep.

I will take away their humiliation

and make the whole earth admire and respect them. ²¹ 

John 11:52

11:52 and not for the Jewish nation ²²  only, ²³  but to gather together ²⁴  into one the children of God who are scattered.) ²⁵ 

[50:17]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[30:4]  ³ tn Heb “are at the farthest edge of the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[32:26]  ⁴ tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).

[27:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[27:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord will beat out.” The verb is used of beating seeds or grain to separate the husk from the kernel (see Judg 6:11; Ruth 2:17; Isa 28:27), and of beating the olives off the olive tree (Deut 24:20). The latter metaphor may be in view here, where a tree metaphor has been employed in the preceding verses. See also 17:6.

[27:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the river,” a frequent designation in the OT for the Euphrates. For clarity most modern English versions substitute the name “Euphrates” for “the river” here.

[27:12]  ⁸ sn The Israelites will be freed from exile (likened to beating the olives off the tree) and then gathered (likened to collecting the olives).

[40:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his bosom” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), an expression which reflects closeness and protective care.

[54:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “forsook” (NASB).

[5:10]  ¹¹ tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”

[5:10]  ¹² tn Heb “all of your survivors.”

[5:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “to every wind.”

[11:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “have been partially a sanctuary”; others take this as temporal (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “a little while”).

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[4:6]  ¹⁹ sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.

[3:19]  ²⁰ tn The word “sheep” is supplied for clarification. As in Mic 4:6-7, the exiles are here pictured as injured and scattered sheep whom the divine shepherd rescues from danger.

[3:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “I will make them into praise and a name, in all the earth, their shame.” The present translation assumes that “their shame” specifies “them” and that “name” stands here for a good reputation.

[11:52]  ²² tn See the note on the word “nation” in the previous verse.

[11:52]  ²³ sn The author in his comment expands the prophecy to include the Gentiles (not for the Jewish nation only), a confirmation that the Fourth Gospel was directed, at least partly, to a Gentile audience. There are echoes of Pauline concepts here (particularly Eph 2:11-22) in the stress on the unity of Jew and Gentile.

[11:52]  ²⁴ tn Grk “that he might gather together.”

[11:52]  ²⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.