The Beloved to Her Lover: Tell me, O you whom my heart ¹  loves, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest ²  I wander around ³  beside the flocks of your companions!

The leaders will not be able to run away and hide. ¹  The shepherds of the flocks will not be able to escape.

I saw it approaching the ram. It went into a fit of rage against the ram ¹  and struck it ²  and broke off its two horns. The ram had no ability to resist it. ³  The goat hurled the ram ⁴  to the ground and trampled it. No one could deliver the ram from its power. ⁵ 

The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock set aside for slaughter.

And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

and all who heard it were astonished ¹  at what the shepherds said.

When some ¹  shepherds came and drove them away, ²  Moses came up and defended them ³  and then watered their flock.

They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us ¹  from the shepherds, ²  and he actually ³  drew water for us and watered the flock!”

You are to sanctify the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution, ¹  which were waved and lifted up as a contribution from the ram of consecration, from what belongs to Aaron and to his sons.

He must lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash ¹  its blood against the altar’s sides.

Your children ¹  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

David took all the flocks and herds and drove them in front of the rest of the animals. People were saying, “This is David’s plunder!”

He built royal cities ¹  and owned a large number of sheep and cattle, for God gave him a huge amount of possessions.

“But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹  than I, whose fathers I disdained too much ²  to put with my sheep dogs. ³ 

No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. ¹  No bedouin ²  will camp ³  there, no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁴  there.

All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ¹  They will go up on my altar acceptably, ²  and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.” ¹ 

Take the choice bone of the flock, heap up bones under it; boil rapidly, and boil its bones in it.

On that day the Lord their God will deliver them as the flock of his people, for they are the precious stones of a crown sparkling over his land.

Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?