When the Israelites had mustered and had received their supplies, they marched out to face them in battle. When the Israelites deployed opposite them, they were like two small flocks ¹  of goats, but the Syrians filled the land.

We also accept responsibility, as is written in the law, for bringing the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks to the temple of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the temple of our God.

The Lover to His Beloved: Oh, ²  you are beautiful, my darling! ³  Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. ⁴  Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending ⁵  from Mount Gilead.

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.

Hear what the Lord has to say, O nations. Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea. Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them. He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”

I, the Lord, say that shepherds will once again count their sheep as they pass into the fold. ¹  They will do this in all the towns in the southern hill country, the western foothills, the southern hill country, the territory of Benjamin, the villages surrounding Jerusalem, and the towns of Judah.’ ² 

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. ¹ 

Shepherd your people with your shepherd’s rod, ¹  the flock that belongs to you, ²  the one that lives alone in a thicket, in the midst of a pastureland. ³  Allow them to graze in Bashan and Gilead, ⁴  as they did in the old days. ⁵ 

Then he said, ‘Observe ¹  that all the male goats mating with ²  the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.

If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering ¹  or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; ²  it must have no flaw. ³ 

butter from the herd and milk from the flock, along with the fat of lambs, rams and goats of Bashan, along with the best of the kernels of wheat; and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.

“People of Judah, ¹  get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! ²  Be the first to depart! ³  Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

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.

And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, ¹  and I am your God, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

“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 

They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, ¹  and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the middle of the pen.

So Laban asked, ¹  “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” ²  Jacob replied, ³  “but if you agree to this one condition, ⁴  I will continue to care for ⁵  your flocks and protect them:

This was my lot ¹  for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave ²  for you – fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!

Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ¹  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

and must bring a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels, ¹  for a guilt offering to the priest. So the priest will make atonement ²  on his behalf for his error which he committed ³  (although he himself had not known it) and he will be forgiven. ⁴