John 10:3-14

International Standard Version

³ It’s to him the gatekeeper opens the gate, and it’s his voice the sheep hear. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has driven out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. ⁵ They’ll never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they don’t recognize the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus used this illustration with them, but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.

Jesus the Good Shepherd

⁷ So again Jesus said, “Truly, I tell all of you^[a] emphatically, I’m the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me^[b] are thieves and bandits, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I’m the gate. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved. He’ll come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal, slaughter, and destroy. I’ve come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

¹¹ “I’m the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down^[c] his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired worker, who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, deserts the sheep, and runs away. So the wolf snatches them and scatters them, ¹³ because he’s a hired worker, and the sheep don’t matter to him.

¹⁴ I’m the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,