Keluaran 3:1

3:1 Now Moses ¹  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ²  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ³ 

Yudas 1:11

1:11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, ⁴  and because of greed ⁵  have abandoned themselves ⁶  to ⁷  Balaam’s error; hence, ⁸  they will certainly perish ⁹  in Korah’s rebellion.

Mazmur 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, ¹⁰ 

and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and of Israel, his chosen nation. ¹¹ 

78:72 David ¹²  cared for them with pure motives; ¹³ 

he led them with skill. ¹⁴ 

Amos 7:14

7:14 Amos replied ¹⁵  to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. ¹⁶  No, ¹⁷  I was a herdsman who also took care of ¹⁸  sycamore fig trees. ¹⁹ 

Zakharia 13:5

13:5 Instead he will say, ‘I am no prophet – indeed, I am a farmer, for a man has made me his indentured servant since my youth.’ ²⁰ 

Matius 4:18-19

The Call of the Disciples

4:18 As ²¹  he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). ²²  4:19 He said to them, “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people.” ²³ 

[3:1]  ¹ sn The vav (ו) disjunctive with the name “Moses” introduces a new and important starting point. The Lord’s dealing with Moses will fill the next two chapters.

[3:1]  ² tn Or “west of the desert,” taking אַחַר (’akhar, “behind”) as the opposite of עַל־פְּנֵי (’al-pÿne, “on the face of, east of”; cf. Gen 16:12; 25:18).

[3:1]  ³ sn “Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. There is a good deal of foreshadowing in this verse, for later Moses would shepherd the people of Israel and lead them to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. See D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42.

[1:11]  ⁴ tn Or “they have gone the way of Cain.”

[1:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “for wages.”

[1:11]  ⁶ tn The verb ἐκχέω (ekcew) normally means “pour out.” Here, in the passive, it occasionally has a reflexive idea, as BDAG 312 s.v. 3. suggests (with extra-biblical examples).

[1:11]  ⁷ tn Or “in.”

[1:11]  ⁸ tn Grk “and.” See note on “perish” later in this verse.

[1:11]  ⁹ tn The three verbs in this verse are all aorist indicative (“have gone down,” “have abandoned,” “have perished”). Although the first and second could be considered constative or ingressive, the last is almost surely proleptic (referring to the certainty of their future judgment). Although it may seem odd that a proleptic aorist is so casually connected to other aorists with a different syntactical force, it is not unparalleled (cf. Rom 8:30).

[78:71]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from after the ewes he brought him.”

[78:71]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.”

[78:72]  ¹² tn Heb “He”; the referent (David, God’s chosen king, mentioned in v. 70) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[78:72]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart.”

[78:72]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and with the understanding of his hands he led them.”

[7:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “replied and said.” The phrase “and said” is pleonastic (redundant) and has not been included in the translation.

[7:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I was not a prophet nor was I the son of a prophet.” The phrase “son of a prophet” refers to one who was trained in a prophetic guild. Since there is no equative verb present in the Hebrew text, another option is to translate with the present tense, “I am not a prophet by profession.” In this case Amos, though now carrying out a prophetic ministry (v. 15), denies any official or professional prophetic status. Modern English versions are divided about whether to understand the past (JB, NIV, NKJV) or present tense (NASB, NEB, NRSV, NJPS) here.

[7:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for.”

[7:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gashed”; or “pierced.”

[7:14]  sn For a discussion of the agricultural background, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 128-29.

[7:14]  ¹⁹ sn It is possible that herdsmen agreed to care for sycamore fig trees in exchange for grazing rights. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 116-17. Since these trees do not grow around Tekoa but rather in the lowlands, another option is that Amos owned other property outside his hometown. In this case, this verse demonstrates his relative wealth and is his response to Amaziah; he did not depend on prophecy as a profession (v. 13).

[13:5]  ²⁰ tn Or perhaps “for the land has been my possession since my youth” (so NRSV; similar NAB).

[4:18]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[4:18]  ²² tn The two phrases in this verse placed in parentheses are explanatory comments by the author, parenthetical in nature.

[4:19]  ²³ tn The Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, thus “people.”

[4:19]  sn The kind of fishing envisioned was net – not line – fishing (cf. v. 18; cf. also BDAG 55 s.v. ἀμφιβάλλω, ἀμφίβληστρον) which involved a circular net that had heavy weights around its perimeter. The occupation of fisherman was labor-intensive. The imagery of using a lure and a line (and waiting for the fish to strike) is thus foreign to this text. Rather, the imagery of a fisherman involved much strain, long hours, and often little results. Jesus’ point may have been one or more of the following: the strenuousness of evangelism, the work ethic that it required, persistence and dedication to the task (often in spite of minimal results), the infinite value of the new “catch” (viz., people), and perhaps an eschatological theme of snatching people from judgment (cf. W. L. Lane, Mark [NICNT], 67). If this last motif is in view, then catching people is the opposite of catching fish: The fish would be caught, killed, cooked, and eaten; people would be caught so as to remove them from eternal destruction and to give them new life.