He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went into it to relieve himself. ¹  Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave.

Then Absalom went to the king and said, “My shearers have begun their work. ¹  Let the king and his servants go with me.”

He took him away from following the mother sheep, ¹  and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his chosen nation. ² 

I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon ¹  a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Because you push with your side and your shoulder, and thrust your horns at all the weak sheep until you scatter them abroad, ¹ 

“This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: ¹  I will multiply their people like sheep. ² 

And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, ¹  he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

So that day Laban ¹  removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care ²  of his sons.

Then the one who brought the offering ¹  must remove all its fat (just as the fat of the sheep is removed from the peace offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer them up in smoke on the altar on top of the other gifts of the Lord. So the priest will make atonement ²  on his behalf for his sin which he has committed and he will be forgiven. ³ 

and he must bring his penalty for guilt ¹  to the Lord for his sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, whether a female sheep or a female goat, for a sin offering. So the priest will make atonement ²  on his behalf for ³  his sin.

If she cannot afford a sheep, ¹  then she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ²  one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering, and the priest is to make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean.’” ³ 

Whatever is needed – whether oxen or rams or lambs or burnt offerings for the God of heaven or wheat or salt or wine or oil, as required by ¹  the priests who are in Jerusalem – must be given to them daily without any neglect,

Like a shepherd he tends his flock; he gathers up the lambs with his arm; he carries them close to his heart; ¹  he leads the ewes along.

“I, the Lord who rules over all, say: ¹  ‘This place will indeed lie in ruins. There will be no people or animals in it. But there will again be in it and in its towns sheepfolds where shepherds can rest their sheep.

This is what the Lord says: “Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion’s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged. ¹  They will be left with just a corner of a bed, ²  and a part ³  of a couch.”

When ¹  the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines; when the olive trees do not produce, ²  and the fields yield no crops; ³  when the sheep disappear ⁴  from the pen, and there are no cattle in the stalls,

Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the flock by themselves.

They allow their children to run ¹  like a flock; their little ones dance about.

A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

the lambs will be for your clothing, and the goats will be for the price of a field. ¹