Mazmur 23:2

23:2 He takes me to lush pastures, ¹ 

he leads me to refreshing water. ² 

Yesaya 65:10

65:10 Sharon ³  will become a pasture for sheep,

and the Valley of Achor ⁴  a place where cattle graze; ⁵ 

they will belong to my people, who seek me. ⁶ 

Yeremia 23:4

23:4 I will install rulers ⁷  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. ⁸  I, the Lord, promise it! ⁹ 

Yehezkiel 34:13-15

34:13 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. 34:14 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 ¹⁰  pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel. 34:15 I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord.

Yehezkiel 34:23-28

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹¹  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 ¹²  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 ¹³  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 34:28 They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid.

Mikha 4:4

4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear. ¹⁶ 

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. ¹⁷ 

Mikha 5:4-5

5:4 He will assume his post ¹⁸  and shepherd the people ¹⁹  by the Lord’s strength,

by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. ²⁰ 

They will live securely, ²¹  for at that time he will be honored ²² 

even in the distant regions of ²³  the earth.

5:5 He will give us peace. ²⁴ 

Should the Assyrians try to invade our land

and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ²⁵ 

we will send ²⁶  against them seven ²⁷  shepherd-rulers, ²⁸ 

make that eight commanders. ²⁹ 

Mikha 7:14

7:14 Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ³⁰ 

the flock that belongs to you, ³¹ 

the one that lives alone in a thicket,

in the midst of a pastureland. ³² 

Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ³³ 

as they did in the old days. ³⁴ 

Wahyu 7:15-17

7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve ³⁵  him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. ³⁶  7:16 They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, ³⁷  7:17 because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ³⁸ 

[23:2]  ¹ tn Heb “he makes me lie down in lush pastures.” The Hiphil verb יַרְבִּיצֵנִי (yarbitseniy) has a causative-modal nuance here (see IBHS 445-46 §27.5 on this use of the Hiphil), meaning “allows me to lie down” (see also Jer 33:12). The point is that the shepherd takes the sheep to lush pastures and lets them eat and rest there. Both imperfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing and highlight the psalmist’s typical experience.

[23:2]  ² tn Both genitives in v. 2 indicate an attribute of the noun they modify: דֶּשֶׁא (deshe’) characterizes the pastures as “lush” (i.e., rich with vegetation), while מְנֻחוֹת (mÿnukhot) probably characterizes the water as refreshing. In this case the plural indicates an abstract quality. Some take מְנֻחוֹת in the sense of “still, calm” (i.e., as describing calm pools in contrast to dangerous torrents) but it is unlikely that such a pastoral scene is in view. Shepherds usually watered their sheep at wells (see Gen 29:2-3; Exod 2:16-19). Another option is to take מְנֻחוֹת as “resting places” and to translate, “water of/at the resting places” (i.e., a genitive of location; see IBHS 147-48 §9.5.2e).

[23:2]  sn Within the framework of the metaphor, the psalmist/sheep is declaring in v. 2 that his shepherd provides the essentials for physical life. At a deeper level the psalmist may be referring to more than just physical provision, though that would certainly be included.

[65:10]  ³ sn Sharon was a plain located to the west, along the Mediterranean coast north of Joppa and south of Carmel.

[65:10]  ⁴ sn The Valley of Achor (“Achor” means “trouble” in Hebrew) was the site of Achan’s execution. It was located to the east, near Jericho.

[65:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “a resting place for cattle”; NASB, NIV “for herds.”

[65:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “for my people who seek me.”

[23:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[23:4]  ⁸ 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]  sn There is an extended play on the Hebrew word פָּקַד which is a word with rather broad English equivalents. Here the word refers to the fault of the shepherds/rulers who have not “taken care” of the sheep/people (v. 2), the “punishment” for the evil they have done in not taking care of them (v. 2), and the fact that after the Lord assigns new shepherds/rulers over them they will be cared for in such a way that none of them “will turn up missing” (v. 4).

[23:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “good.”

[34:23]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ sn The woods were typically considered to be places of danger (Ps 104:20-21; Jer 5:6).

[34:26]  ¹⁵ 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).

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”

[4:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.”

[5:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “stand up”; NAB “stand firm”; NASB “will arise.”

[5:4]  ¹⁹ tn The words “the people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “by the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.”

[5:4]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “be great.”

[5:4]  ²³ tn Or “to the ends of.”

[5:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).

[5:5]  ²⁵ tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).

[5:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “raise up.”

[5:5]  ²⁷ sn The numbers seven and eight here symbolize completeness and emphasize that Israel will have more than enough military leadership and strength to withstand the Assyrian advance.

[5:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[5:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”

[7:14]  ³⁰ tn Or “with your scepter” (the Hebrew term can mean either “rod” or “scepter”).

[7:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “the flock of your inheritance.”

[7:14]  ³² tn Or “in the midst of Carmel.” The Hebrew term translated “pastureland” may be a place name.

[7:14]  sn The point seems to be that Israel is in a vulnerable position, like sheep in a thicket populated by predators, while rich pastureland (their homeland and God’s blessings) is in view.

[7:14]  ³³ sn The regions of Bashan and Gilead, located in Transjordan, were noted for their rich grazing lands.

[7:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “as in the days of antiquity.”

[7:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “worship.” The word here is λατρεύω (latreuw).

[7:15]  ³⁶ tn Grk “will spread his tent over them,” normally an idiom for taking up residence with someone, but when combined with the preposition ἐπί (epi, “over”) the idea is one of extending protection or shelter (BDAG 929 s.v. σκηνόω).

[7:16]  ³⁷ tn An allusion to Isa 49:10. The phrase “burning heat” is one word in Greek (καῦμα, kauma) that refers to a burning, intensely-felt heat. See BDAG 536 s.v.

[7:17]  ³⁸ sn An allusion to Isa 25:8.