Psalms 79:13

79:13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,

will continually thank you. ¹ 

We will tell coming generations of your praiseworthy acts. ² 

Psalms 95:7

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ³ 

Today, if only you would obey him! ⁴ 

Psalms 100:3

100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us and we belong to him; ⁵ 

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Isaiah 53:6

53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 34:31

34:31 And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, ⁷  and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Luke 15:4-6

15:4 “Which one ⁸  of you, if he has a hundred ⁹  sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture ¹⁰  and go look for ¹¹  the one that is lost until he finds it? ¹²  15:5 Then ¹³  when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 15:6 Returning ¹⁴  home, he calls together ¹⁵  his ¹⁶  friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’

[79:13]  ¹ tn Or (hyperbolically) “will thank you forever.”

[79:13]  ² tn Heb “to a generation and a generation we will report your praise.” Here “praise” stands by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.

[95:7]  ³ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[100:3]  ⁵ 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.

[53:6]  ⁶ tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of פָגַע (paga’) means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, “encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -בְּ (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -בְּ. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.

[34:31]  ⁷ 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.

[15:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “What man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[15:4]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or “desert,” but here such a translation might suggest neglect of the 99 sheep left behind.

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn Grk “go after,” but in contemporary English the idiom “to look for” is used to express this.

[15:4]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “And coming into his…” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[15:6]  ¹⁵ sn A touch of drama may be present, as the term calls together can mean a formal celebration (1 Kgs 1:9-10).

[15:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215). It occurs before “neighbors” as well (“his friends and his neighbors”) but has not been translated the second time because of English style.