Jeremiah 23:1-6

In our industrialized and technological age, the world of the shepherd is foreign to most of us. In fact, even while the world consumes (and Western Culture especially) large quantities of beef, we barely understand the life of the Cattleman. To compare the work of God to the Cattleman would be a metaphor that would not make sense to us, let alone the Shepherd. For persons in Western democracies, to say that their highest elected official is like a Cattleman is out of sync with how we think of leadership. Except for generalized notions from how the metaphor of Shepherd was used in the Bible, most persons have little or no lived experience with shepherds.

In the world of the Ancient Near East, the idea that the most important leaders were shepherds was ordinary and commonplace. Not only was shepherding a common role for a member of a clan or tribal group, it was widespread throughout the region we call the Fertile Crescent (stretching from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers through the Mediterranean coast down to Egypt).

Shepherds had to manage constant care over their flocks, from guiding them to green pastures and alongside water courses safe for drinking (Psalm 23 understands this imagery), to insuring they were kept safe at night. Sheepfolds in the region demonstrate that rock walls would be used as a boundary for the sheep, with the shepherd lying for sleep in the gate that served as entry and exit into the sheepfold. The shepherd functioned as the “gate” for the sheep as they were hemmed in for the night. (see: http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/sheep-fold.html ). Sheep were subject to theft, though their greatest danger would have been natural predators that can easily overpower the sheep. Where a goat among the flock might be able to ram a predator and perhaps flee, woolen covered sheep have no horns, no fangs, and no hard shells to protect their vital organs.

Since every person in the region of the Fertile Crescent at the time when the history of the Bible was taking place had experience with sheep and shepherds, it makes sense in this region that the idea of shepherding sheep became a root metaphor for the leader caring for persons in his region, under his territorial or civil control. Hammurabi, one of the most celebrated kings of the region referenced himself as a Shepherd. (see: http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/hammurabi.html )

Understood in these ways, the startling “Woe” of Jeremiah 23 would capture the imagination of those who first heard these words! Shepherds are tasked with securing the lives of sheep, not scattering (v.1) them! Shepherds are tasked with the role of devoting themselves to the wellbeing of the sheep, not destroying (v.1) them! The responsible shepherd, if he does one thing, he insures that he attends to the needs of the sheep and insures they are kept together, even hemmed in at night. This contrasts starkly with the shepherds that Jeremiah lambasts who “scatter” (used a 2nd time in v.2) and drive away (v.2) and “have not attended” (v.2) to “my people” (v.2) says the LORD. In these ways, the shepherds of God’s people have done “evil” (v.2) such that what they have failed to “attend to” God will now “attend to” manage. [Note how God “will attend” to their failure “to attend” as a play on words and responsibility.]

Scholars offer several suggestions as to precisely who the “shepherds” were that Jeremiah so vociferously speaks out against. The role of shepherding a people would have been the responsibility of a few small classes of people, most likely priests and kings. Most scholars agree that the persons most specifically in focus here for Jeremiah would have been Judah’s failed kings, and perhaps most emphatically the failure of Zedekiah as king (see more below, v. 6).

Verses 3 and 4 assume that the failure of the shepherds of God’s people is discerned, and a new reality must come to pass for the safety and security of God’s flock. Here The LORD acts in personal ways, and with emphatic intentional work to bring back those that have been scattered. “I, myself” of verse 3 demonstrates that the LORD alone is capable of the return. And the LORD will “gather” and “bring back” those who have been scattered from among “all the lands” where they had been driven. While Jeremiah seems to understand the impending reality of the exile, it is not yet realized in the historical time period of Jeremiah’s proclamation here. Still, Jeremiah looks to the future and points to the realities of what the LORD can and will do, restore those cast off into other lands and into exile, whether by Babylonians in 587 or by any who have carried of God’s people.

The function of God’s “bringing back” and “gathering” is tied to a core identity of who God has been, as creator God in Genesis. When God will restore those driven away, it will be in order to make them “fruitful” and to “multiply” (v.3). The commands to be fruitful and multiply was given to fish and fowl on Day 5 of Creation in Genesis 1, to animals and humans on Day 6 of Creation in Genesis 1 and were repeated to the Noah after the flood in Genesis 9. Here God imagines for the flock of his people in their return that they will become again the good work of Creation.

When God brings about the good work of restoration for new creation among a people cast off, God will be the one to “raise up” new shepherds. These new shepherds will stand in contrast to those who had been before. These shepherds will insure that “no fear”, nor “dismay”, nor any “missing” will be among God’s people. Those familiar with the 23rd Psalm will no doubt reckon these ideas to the “I fear no evil, for you are with me” of that Psalm. While Jeremiah does not call the LORD the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 and where God will raise up shepherds as human leaders here, the idea operates as the key focus that the LORD is a good shepherd and will put over Judah for leadership human shepherds that lead with care.

Verse 5 and 6 further clarify, though without name, the role and place of the new shepherd of verses 3 and 4, while also introducing a new metaphor, that of the “branch.” The idea of the “branch” as a metaphor for a leader here is another metaphor of Jeremiah’s choosing that might need explanation. For many though, this idea can be discerned with an awareness of the “family tree” as an explanation for one’s lineage and family heritage. Additionally, for an agrarian culture used to the seasonal work of pruning decaying or dead branches and grafting vibrant branches to a tree, the metaphor of a “righteous branch” would be an image that would be recognizable to Jeremiah’s audience, check out bombtechgolf.com. Further, as Jeremiah’s prophetic activity emerges after the early work of Isaiah, this imagery ties into themes already used by another prophet, particularly by Isaiah in celebrated passages in Isaiah 9 and 11 which resonate with new leadership, righteousness and an emerging branch from the root of Jesse.

The “new branch” that the LORD will raise up will be “for David” (v.5) and here we finally discern that the clarity of metaphors Jeremiah has been using for shepherds is not just “any” leadership role in Judah and is in fact pointed toward the role of the king. This new branch will “reign as king” and “deal wisely” in his role (v.5). He will “execute justice” and execute “righteousness” in the land (v.5).

The reality of the justice and righteousness that this new branch will bring about for “Judah” is “salvation” and for “Israel” is “safety” (v.6). This new shepherd/branch, raised up by the LORD reverses the imagery of verses 1-2. This new “branch” as new shepherd-king brings salvation and safety.

The idea that Jeremiah here has been critiquing shepherds as kings connects directly to the name of a Judean King in the time of Jeremiah. And, that deposed king who will be replaced by the LORD’s chosen one. Zedekiah had been a king in Jeremiah’s time. His name is a construct of the Divine name and the word for “righteousness.” Literally, Zedekiah’s name can be translated: “righteous is the LORD.” The new one, raised up by the LORD that Jeremiah announces is a reversal of the name, though, and perhaps intends to be a reversal of the failed policies of Zedekiah. This new one is the “LORD is our righteousness.”