Ezekiel 34:2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: To the shepherds—thus says the Lord God: Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?(A)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 23:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Restoration after Exile
23 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.(A)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 3:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.(A)
Read full chapter
Isaiah 40:11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms
and carry them in his bosom
and gently lead the mother sheep.(A)
Luke 20:46-47
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
46 “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and who love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets.(A) 47 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Read full chapter
Ezekiel 34:8-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild animals, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep,(A) 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God: I am against the shepherds, and I will hold them accountable for my sheep and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them.(B)
Read full chapter
2 Peter 2:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.(A)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 10:21
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
21 For the shepherds are stupid
and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered,
and all their flock is scattered.(A)
Psalm 78:71-72
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel, his inheritance.(A)
72 With upright heart he tended them
and guided them with skillful hand.(B)
Romans 16:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites,[a] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 16.18 Gk their own belly
Acts 20:29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
29 I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.(A)
Read full chapter
John 21:15-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus and Peter
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”(A) 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”(B) 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.(C)
Read full chapter
Zechariah 11:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 Oh, my worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
and his right eye!
Let his arm be completely withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!”(A)
Ezekiel 13:19
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death those who should not die and keeping alive those who should not live, by your lies to my people, who listen to lies.(A)
Read full chapter
1 Peter 5:2-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight,[a] not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it,[b] not for sordid gain but eagerly.(A) 3 Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.(B) 4 And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.(C)
Read full chapter
Acts 20:26
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,(A)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 12:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled down my portion;
they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.(A)
John 10:11-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.(A) 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.(B)
Read full chapter
John 10:1-2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus the Good Shepherd
10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.(A)
Read full chapter
Zephaniah 3:3-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 The officials within it
are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing until the morning.(A)
4 Its prophets are reckless,
faithless persons;
its priests have profaned what is sacred;
they have done violence to the law.(B)
Micah 3:11-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
“Surely the Lord is with us!
No harm shall come upon us.”(A)
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the temple a wooded height.(B)
Jeremiah 2:8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers[a] transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal
and went after things that do not profit.(A)
Footnotes
- 2.8 Heb shepherds
Luke 12:42-46
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
42 And the Lord said, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?(A) 43 Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 45 But if that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know and will cut him in pieces[a] and put him with the unfaithful.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 12.46 Or cut him off
Matthew 24:48-51
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
48 But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. 51 He will cut him in pieces[a] and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 24.51 Or cut him off
Micah 3:1-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Wicked Rulers and Prophets
3 And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—(A)
2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
and the flesh off their bones,(B)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
like flesh in a caldron.(C)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.