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Ezekiel uses shepherd imagery as a metaphor to describe God caring for the entire flock of Israel. Psalm 23 uses similar language, but reshapes the image and metaphor into a shepherd caring for a single sheep.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ezekiel 34:14
Hebrew Bible
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. 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. 13 I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land. 14 In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them—with judgment!
Psalm 23:2
Hebrew Bible
1 A psalm of David.The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He takes me to lush pastures, he leads me to refreshing water. 3 He restores my strength. He leads me down the right paths for the sake of his reputation. 4 Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me;your rod and your staff reassure me.
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Notes and References
“... In its other occurrences in the First Testament the object of shepherding is, more naturally, a flock, Israel, and “shepherd” is usually simply an epithet (e.g., Gen 49:24). It is very unusual for Yhwh to be looking after a single sheep (cf. Jacob in Gen 48:15) and for the image to be developed in the way that happens in Psalm 23. This is not a mere appropriation of a routine metaphor but a creative exposition that explores the metaphor’s potential in a unique way. The First Testament’s other extended exposition of the shepherd image comes in Ezekiel 34, applied more to the human “shepherds” who looked after Israel, but that passage also brings out the distinctiveness of this one, because Ezekiel 34 is more an allegory than the exposition of a metaphor. Similarly, while many of the details of the psalm parallel exodus traditions, it is their setting in the exposition of the metaphor that gives these details their coherence here. ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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