^17 (A)“Israel is a hunted sheep ^(B)driven away by lions. ^(C)First the king of Assyria ^(D)devoured him, and now at last ^(E)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon ^(F)has gnawed his bones.

²⁵ For ^(A)you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to ^(B)the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and ^(A)kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ^11 (B)I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd ^(C)lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² He who is ^(D)a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and ^(E)leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and ^(F)scatters them.

^2 (A)I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And ^(B)I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,

^6 (A)“My people have been lost sheep. ^(B)Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.

⁹ In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(A)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, ¹⁰ and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ^(B)Halah, and on the ^(C)Habor, ^(D)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

^13 (E)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

^4 (A)“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, ^(B)if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine ^(C)in the open country, and ^(D)go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, ^(E)he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for ^(F)I have found my sheep that was lost.’

^36 (A)When he saw the crowds, ^(B)he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, ^(C)like sheep without a shepherd. ^37 (D)Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore ^(E)pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to ^(F)send out laborers into his harvest.”