Psalms 78:70-72

78:70 He chose David, his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds.

78:71 He took him away from following the mother sheep, ¹ 

and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and of Israel, his chosen nation. ² 

78:72 David ³  cared for them with pure motives; ⁴ 

he led them with skill. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 3:15

3:15 I will give you leaders ⁶  who will be faithful to me. ⁷  They will lead you with knowledge and insight.

Jeremiah 23:4

23:4 I will install rulers ⁸  over them who will care for them. Then they will no longer need to fear or be terrified. None of them will turn up missing. ⁹  I, the Lord, promise it! ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 34:2-10

34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds ¹¹  of Israel; prophesy, and say to them – to the shepherds: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? 34:3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep! 34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ¹²  you have ruled over them. 34:5 They were scattered because they had no shepherd, and they became food for every wild beast. ¹³  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.

34:7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 34:8 As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, my sheep have become prey and have become food for all the wild beasts. There was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep, 34:9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 34:10 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand. I will no longer let them be shepherds; ¹⁴  the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore. I will rescue my sheep from their mouth, so that they will no longer be food for them.

Ezekiel 34:23

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹⁵  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

Acts 20:28

20:28 Watch out for ¹⁶  yourselves and for all the flock of which ¹⁷  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ¹⁸  to shepherd the church of God ¹⁹  that he obtained ²⁰  with the blood of his own Son. ²¹ 

Acts 20:1

Paul Travels Through Macedonia and Greece

20:1 After the disturbance had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging ²²  them and saying farewell, ²³  he left to go to Macedonia. ²⁴ 

Acts 4:15-16

4:15 But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, ²⁵  they began to confer with one another, 4:16 saying, “What should we do with these men? For it is plain ²⁶  to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign ²⁷  has come about through them, ²⁸  and we cannot deny it.

Hebrews 13:20

Benediction and Conclusion

13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 5:1-4

5:1 For every high priest is taken from among the people ²⁹  and appointed ³⁰  to represent them before God, ³¹  to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 5:2 He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness, 5:3 and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. 5:4 And no one assumes this honor ³²  on his own initiative, ³³  but only when called to it by God, ³⁴  as in fact Aaron was.

[78:71]  ¹ tn Heb “from after the ewes he brought him.”

[78:71]  ² tn Heb “to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.”

[78:72]  ³ tn Heb “He”; the referent (David, God’s chosen king, mentioned in v. 70) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[78:72]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart.”

[78:72]  ⁵ tn Heb “and with the understanding of his hands he led them.”

[3:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[3:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “after/according to my [own] heart.”

[23:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[23:4]  ⁹ tn There are various nuances of the word פָּקַד (paqad) represented in vv. 2, 4. See Ps 8:4 (8:5 HT) and Zech 10:3 for “care for/take care of” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.1.a). See Exod 20:5; Amos 3:2; Jer 9:24; 11:22 for “punish” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3). See 1 Kgs 20:39 and 2 Kgs 10:19 for “be missing” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Niph.1).

[23:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:2]  ¹¹ tn The term shepherd is applied to kings in the ancient Near East. In the OT the Lord is often addressed as shepherd of Israel (Gen 49:24; Ps 8:1). The imagery of shepherds as Israel’s leaders is also employed (Jer 23:1-2).

[34:4]  ¹² tn The term translated “harshness” is used to describe the oppression the Israelites suffered as slaves in Egypt (Exod 1:13).

[34:5]  ¹³ tn As a case of dittography, the MT repeats “and they were scattered” at the end of the verse.

[34:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will cause them to cease from feeding sheep.”

[34:23]  ¹⁵ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[20:28]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ¹⁸ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ¹⁹ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ²⁰ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ²¹ tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.

[20:1]  ²² tn Or “exhorting.”

[20:1]  ²³ tn Or “and taking leave of them.”

[20:1]  ²⁴ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[4:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “the Sanhedrin” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[4:16]  ²⁶ tn Or “evident.”

[4:16]  ²⁷ tn Here σημεῖον (shmeion) has been translated as “miraculous sign” rather than simply “sign” or “miracle” since both components appear to be present in the context. It is clear that the healing of the lame man was a miracle, but for the Sanhedrin it was the value of the miraculous healing as a sign that concerned them because it gave attestation to the message of Peter and John. The sign “speaks” as Peter claimed in 3:11-16.

[4:16]  ²⁸ tn Or “has been done by them.”

[5:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated “people.”

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”

[5:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”

[5:4]  ³² sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

[5:4]  ³³ tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

[5:4]  ³⁴ tn Grk “being called by God.”