²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,”^[a](A) but now you have returned to the Shepherd^(B) and Overseer of your souls.^(C)

⁹ In King Hezekiah’s fourth year,^(A) which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. ¹⁰ At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹ The king^(B) of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.^{(C) 12} This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant^(D)—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.^(E) They neither listened to the commands^(F) nor carried them out.

¹³ In the fourteenth year^(G) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah^(H) and captured them.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,^(A) and have it to the full.^(B)

¹¹ “I am^(C) the good shepherd.^(D) The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.^{(E) 12} The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.^(F) Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?^{(A) 5} And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’^(B)

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,^(A) because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.^{(B) 37} Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest^(C) is plentiful but the workers are few.^{(D) 38} Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”