Psalms 100:3

100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us and we belong to him; ¹ 

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Isaiah 40:10

40:10 Look, the sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; ² 

his military power establishes his rule. ³ 

Look, his reward is with him;

his prize goes before him. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 23:3

23:3 Then I myself will regather those of my people ⁵  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. ⁶  They will greatly increase in number.

Ezekiel 34:22-26

34:22 I will save my sheep; they will no longer be prey. I will judge between one sheep and another.

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ⁷  He will feed them and will be their shepherd. 34:24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince ⁸  among them; I, the Lord, have spoken!

34:25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ⁹  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ¹⁰  34:26 I will turn them and the regions around my hill into a blessing. I will make showers come down in their season; they will be showers that bring blessing. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 34:31

34:31 And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, ¹²  and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Micah 5:4

5:4 He will assume his post ¹³  and shepherd the people ¹⁴  by the Lord’s strength,

by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. ¹⁵ 

They will live securely, ¹⁶  for at that time he will be honored ¹⁷ 

even in the distant regions of ¹⁸  the earth.

Micah 7:14

7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ¹⁹ 

the flock that belongs to you, ²⁰ 

the one that lives alone in a thicket,

in the midst of a pastureland. ²¹ 

Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ²² 

as they did in the old days. ²³ 

Luke 12:32

12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased ²⁴  to give you the kingdom.

John 10:27

10:27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:1

Jesus as the Good Shepherd

10:1 “I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁵  the one who does not enter the sheepfold ²⁶  by the door, ²⁷  but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

John 5:2-4

5:2 Now there is ²⁸  in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate ²⁹  a pool called Bethzatha ³⁰  in Aramaic, ³¹  which has five covered walkways. ³²  5:3 A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways. 5:4 [[EMPTY]] ³³ 

[100:3]  ¹ tn The present translation (like most modern translations) follows the Qere (marginal reading), which reads literally, “and to him [are] we.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and not we.” The suffixed preposition לו (“to him”) was confused aurally with the negative particle לא because the two sound identical.

[40:10]  ² tn Heb “comes as a strong one”; ASV “will come as a mighty one.” The preposition בְּ (bet) here carries the nuance “in the capacity of.” It indicates that the Lord possesses the quality expressed by the noun. See GKC 379 §119.i and HALOT 104 s.v. בְּ.

[40:10]  ³ tn Heb “his arm rules for him” (so NIV, NRSV). The Lord’s “arm” symbolizes his military power (see Isa 51:9-10; 63:5).

[40:10]  ⁴ tn As the Lord returns to Jerusalem as a victorious warrior, he brings with him the spoils of victory, called here his “reward” and “prize.” These terms might also be translated “wages” and “recompense.” Verse 11 indicates that his rescued people, likened to a flock of sheep, are his reward.

[23:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “my sheep.”

[23:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “their fold.”

[34:23]  ⁷ 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).

[34:24]  ⁸ sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).

[34:25]  ⁹ tn The phrase “live securely” occurs in Ezek 28:26; 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 as an expression of freedom from fear. It is a promised blessing resulting from obedience (see Lev 26:5-6).

[34:25]  ¹⁰ sn The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20-21; Jer 5:6).

[34:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).

[34:31]  ¹² tn Heb, “the sheep of my pasture, you are human.” See 36:37-38 for a similar expression. The possessive pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation to balance “I am your God” in the next clause.

[5:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”

[5:4]  ¹⁴ tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.”

[5:4]  ¹⁶ tn The words “in peace” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Perhaps וְיָשָׁבוּ (vÿyashavu, “and they will live”) should be emended to וְשָׁבוּ (vÿshavu, “and they will return”).

[5:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “be great.”

[5:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “to the ends of.”

[7:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).

[7:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”

[7:14]  ²¹ tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.

[7:14]  ²² sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.

[7:14]  ²³ tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”

[12:32]  ²⁴ tn Or perhaps, “your Father chooses.”

[10:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[10:1]  ²⁶ sn There was more than one type of sheepfold in use in Palestine in Jesus’ day. The one here seems to be a courtyard in front of a house (the Greek word used for the sheepfold here, αὐλή [aulh] frequently refers to a courtyard), surrounded by a stone wall (often topped with briars for protection).

[10:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “entrance.”

[5:2]  ²⁸ tn Regarding the use of the present tense ἐστιν (estin) and its implications for the dating of the Gospel of John, see the article by D. B. Wallace, “John 5,2 and the Date of the Fourth Gospel,” Bib 71 (1990): 177-205.

[5:2]  ²⁹ tn The site of the miracle is also something of a problem: προβατικῇ (probatikh) is usually taken as a reference to the Sheep Gate near the temple. Some (R. E. Brown and others) would place the word κολυμβήθρα (kolumbhqra) with προβατικῇ to read “in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Pool, there is (another pool) with the Hebrew name.” This would imply that there is reference to two pools in the context rather than only one. This does not seem necessary (although it is a grammatical possibility). The gender of the words does not help since both are feminine (as is the participle ἐπιλεγομένη [epilegomenh]). Note however that Brown’s suggestion would require a feminine word to be supplied (for the participle ἐπιλεγομένη to modify). The traditional understanding of the phrase as a reference to the Sheep Gate near the temple appears more probably correct.

[5:2]  ³⁰ tc Some mss (א [L] 33 it) read Bethzatha, while others read Bethsaida (Ì^[66],75 B T W^s [Ψ] pc vg); codex D has Belzetha. A lot of controversy has surrounded the name of the pool itself: The reading of the Byzantine (or majority) text (A C Θ 078 Ë^1,13 Ï), Bethesda, has been virtually discarded by scholars in favor of what is thought to be the more primitive Bethzatha, even though many recent translations continue to employ Bethesda, the traditional reading. The latter is attested by Josephus as the name of a quarter of the city near the northeast corner of the temple area. He reports that the Syrian Legate Cestius burned this suburb in his attack on Jerusalem in October a.d. 68 (J. W. 2.19.4 [2.530]). However, there is some new archaeological evidence for this problem. 3Q15 (Copper Scroll) from Qumran seems to indicate that in the general area of the temple, on the eastern hill of Jerusalem, a treasure was buried in Bet áEsdatayin, in the pool at the entrance to the smaller basin. The name of the region or pool itself seems then to have been Bet ᾿Esda, “house of the flowing.” It appears with the dual ending in the scroll because there were two basins. Bethesda seems to be an accurate Greek rendition of the name, while J. T. Milik suggests Bethzatha is a rendition of the Aramaic intensive plural Bet áEsdata (DJDJ 3, 271). As for the text of John 5:2, the fundamental problems with the Bethesda reading are that it looks motivated (with an edifying Semitic etymology, meaning “House of Mercy” [TCGNT 178]), and is minimally attested. Apart from the Copper Scroll, the evidence for Bethesda is almost entirely shut up to the Byzantine text (C being the most notable exception, but it often has Byzantine encroachments). On the one hand, this argues the Byzantine reading here had ancient, semitic roots; on the other hand, since both readings are attested as historically accurate, a decision has to be based on the better witnesses. The fact that there are multiple readings here suggests that the original was not well understood. Which reading best explains the rise of the others? It seems that Bethzatha is the best choice.

[5:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “in Hebrew.”

[5:2]  ³² tn Or “porticoes,” or “colonnades”; Grk “stoas.”

[5:4]  ³³ tc The majority of later mss (C³ Θ Ψ 078 Ë^1,13 Ï) add the following to 5:3: “waiting for the moving of the water. 5:4 For an angel of the Lord went down and stirred up the water at certain times. Whoever first stepped in after the stirring of the water was healed from whatever disease which he suffered.” Other mss include only v. 3b (A^c D 33 lat) or v. 4 (A L it). Few textual scholars today would accept the authenticity of any portion of vv. 3b-4, for they are not found in the earliest and best witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B C* T pc co), they include un-Johannine vocabulary and syntax, several of the mss that include the verses mark them as spurious (with an asterisk or obelisk), and because there is a great amount of textual diversity among the witnesses that do include the verses. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.