22 Bible Verses About Sheep

Psalm 23:1-3

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”

Reflection: The psalm is headed “A Psalm of David,” and David was out “keeping the sheep” when Samuel came to anoint him (1 Samuel 16:11). The first three verses list what the shepherd provides: pasture, still water, rest and the right paths, so that the sheep “shall not want.” At verse 4 the psalm stops speaking about the Lord and speaks to him: “for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Psalm 100:3

“Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

Reflection: Psalm 100 calls “all the earth” to serve the Lord with gladness, and verse 3 states what the worshippers are to know: the Lord made them, and they belong to him. Psalm 95:7 uses the same pair of pictures: “we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

Isaiah 40:11

“He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

Reflection: Isaiah 40 opens with “Comfort, comfort my people.” Verse 10 shows the Lord God coming “with might,” his arm ruling for him, and verse 11 uses that same arm to gather lambs. The lambs are carried in his bosom, and the ewes “that are with young” are led gently.

Micah 7:14

“Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land.”

Reflection: The book of Micah ends with a prayer, and this verse asks God to shepherd his people with his staff and let them graze in Bashan and Gilead “as in the days of old.” The answer in the next verse recalls the exodus: “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.” The prayer closes on pardon: “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (7:19).

Ezekiel 34:11-12

“For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them…’”

Reflection: These verses follow God’s charge against “the shepherds of Israel” who fed themselves and not the sheep. Having taken the flock out of their hands, God says he will do the work himself: “I, I myself will search for my sheep.” Verse 16 then lists what those shepherds had failed to do and what God now promises: to seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. Later in the chapter he promises to set over them “one shepherd, my servant David” (34:23).

Ezekiel 34:5

“So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.”

Reflection: In this verse the scattering comes from neglect. Verse 4 lists what the shepherds did not do, strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bring back the strayed, seek the lost, and adds “with force and harshness you have ruled them.” Without a shepherd, the sheep wandered “over all the mountains” and became food for wild animals.

Matthew 9:36

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Reflection: The phrase “sheep without a shepherd” goes back to Moses, who asked God to appoint a leader after him “that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd” (Numbers 27:17). Matthew places it while Jesus goes through the towns teaching and healing, and his response is to tell the disciples to pray to “the Lord of the harvest” for laborers. Mark 6:34 uses the same words of another crowd, and there Jesus’ first response is that “he began to teach them many things.”

Isaiah 53:6

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Reflection: Isaiah 53 describes a servant who suffers for others. In verse 6 the straying belongs to everyone, “every one—to his own way,” and the Lord lays the iniquity of all of them on the servant. The next verse turns the picture around: the servant is “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.” In Acts 8:32-35 an Ethiopian official is reading that verse when Philip, “beginning with this Scripture,” tells him the good news about Jesus.

Luke 15:4-6

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”

Reflection: Jesus tells this parable because the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (15:2). The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine, carries the lost sheep home on his shoulders and calls his neighbours to celebrate, and verse 7 applies it: “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” Matthew 18:12-14 has the same story told to the disciples about “these little ones,” ending: “it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

1 Peter 2:25

“For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Reflection: Peter is writing to servants who suffer unjustly (2:18-20) and points them to Christ’s suffering. Verses 22-25 draw on Isaiah 53: “By his wounds you have been healed” follows Isaiah 53:5, and “straying like sheep” follows 53:6. Peter goes on to say what Isaiah’s line does not: these sheep “have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

John 10:11

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Reflection: John 10 begins with a figure of speech the listeners did not understand, about a shepherd whose sheep follow him because they know his voice (10:1-6). Jesus follows it with two sayings, “I am the door” and “I am the good shepherd.” He sets the good shepherd beside the hired hand, who “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees” because the sheep are not his (10:12). Verse 18 adds that no one takes his life from him: “I lay it down of my own accord.”

John 10:16

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Reflection: The fold is the sheepfold of verse 1, and these other sheep are outside it. Jesus says he “must” bring them, and that they will listen to his voice, the mark of his sheep throughout the chapter. Ezekiel 34:23 also promises “one shepherd.” John’s Gospel comes back to the idea in 11:52, where Jesus will die “not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

John 10:27-28

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Reflection: Jesus says this at the Feast of Dedication, in winter, in the colonnade of Solomon, after some ask him to say plainly whether he is the Christ (10:22-24). He answers that they do not believe “because you are not among my sheep,” and then describes those who are: they hear his voice, he knows them, and they follow him. Verse 29 adds the Father’s hand to his own: “no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Hebrews 13:20

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant…”

Reflection: Hebrews ends with a blessing, and in it God “brought again from the dead” the “great shepherd of the sheep.” The sentence goes on to ask that God “equip you with everything good that you may do his will” (13:21). First Peter uses a similar title for Christ, “the chief Shepherd,” whose appearing brings the elders their reward (1 Peter 5:4).

John 1:29

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”

Reflection: John the Baptist points Jesus out with a title and a task: the Lamb who takes away “the sin of the world.” The next day he says it again, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”, and the two disciples standing with him leave and follow Jesus (1:35-37). The Gospel does not say which lamb John has in mind.

Revelation 7:17

“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Reflection: An elder explains to John who the people in white robes are: “the ones coming out of the great tribulation,” who have washed their robes “in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). In verse 17 the Lamb becomes their shepherd. The promises repeat the wording of Isaiah: no hunger, thirst or scorching sun, and guidance “by springs of water” from Isaiah 49:10, and the wiping away of tears from Isaiah 25:8.

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns of false prophets who look like members of the flock. The test he gives in the next verse is what they produce: “You will recognize them by their fruits,” and the verses after it compare them to good and bad trees.

Matthew 10:16

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Reflection: Jesus says this as he sends out the twelve (10:5). The next verse tells them what the wolves will do: “they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues.” The instruction he pairs with the warning is to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Matthew 25:32-33

“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”

Reflection: The Son of Man, seated on his glorious throne, separates all the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. What divides them in the verses that follow is how they treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner: “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (25:40).

John 21:16-17

“He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved 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.’”

Reflection: After breakfast, Jesus asks Simon Peter three times whether he loves him, and after each answer gives him a charge: “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep.” Peter had denied three times that he was one of Jesus’ disciples (John 18:17, 25-27). At the third question, John records, “Peter was grieved.”

Acts 20:28

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

Reflection: Paul speaks these words to the elders of the church at Ephesus, whom he called to meet him at Miletus (20:17). He calls them overseers of the flock and reminds them what the church cost: God obtained it “with his own blood.” The next verses give the reason for the warning: “fierce wolves will come in among you,” and some will arise “from among your own selves.”

1 Peter 5:2-3

“Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”

Reflection: Peter writes to the elders “as a fellow elder” (5:1). Each instruction sets a right motive against a wrong one: willingly, not under compulsion; eagerly, not for shameful gain; by example, not by domineering. The reward is promised “when the chief Shepherd appears” (5:4).