SHEPHERD (shep-Erd), (from Heb. rq"7, raw aw' , to tend; Gr. iroLi.44v, poy-mane').
The shepherd or "sheep-master" was constantly with his flocks by night and by day, to number, gather, feed, conduct, and guard them (Gen. xxxi: 39; Luke ii .8), and was often attended with a despised dog ( Job xxx :1). His care of the sheep was constant and tender, and his control over them very great (Is. x1:11 ; John x:1-16). Rev. John Hartley, a missionary in Greece, tells us that he was once passing by a flock of sheep, and, having heard it said they would obey the shep herd's voice, he asked him to call one of his sheep, which instantly left its pasturage and approached the hand of the shepherd with a prompt obedience which he never saw in any other animal. It is also universally true in that country that a stranger they will not follow. They flee from him, for they know not the voice of a stranger.
It is said that the shepherds of Judzea gave each lamb a distinct name, and that they instantly obeyed the voice of the shepherd, coming and going daily at his call. An ancient Jewish writer, born and educated in Egypt, states that the sheep, in the season of shearing, would run to the shep herd at his call, and, stooping a little, put them selves into his hands to be shorn and stand quietly until he had done.
It was the business of the shepherd to count the sheep daily, perhaps oftener, and he was ac countable for any that were missing (Gen. xxxi : 38, 39 ; Exod. xxii :12, 13; Lev. xxvii :32 ; Jer. xxxiii :13). ( See ROD, STAFF, SCEPTER.) Sometimes a lamb was taken into the tent and brought up like a dog (2 Sam. xii :3). It is common in Armenia to see shepherds carrying In their bosoms the lambs of the flock they are tend ing. They are too feeble to roam with their dams, and nothing evinces more tenderness and care than gently leading such as arc with young or such as have young lambs to which they give suck (Is. x1:11). Two of our American mis sionaries tell us that while traveling in Armenia they passed several shepherds, probably from the neighboring villages, carrying in their bosoms the lambs of the flocks they tended. The same scene had already frequently interested them by present ing the source of the beautiful imagery of the prophet. It is exhibited only at one season of
the year, when lambs are frequently brought forth during the day at a distance from the fold. The newcomers, being too weak to follow the flock in its rovings after grass, are carried in the bosom of the shepherd, and not unfrequently they so multiply as to fill his arms before night. They are then taken to the fold, and guarded there until sufficiently strong to ramble with their dams, One of these enclosures presents an amusing scene when the sheep return anxiously bleating in the evening from their day's pasture, and scores of hungry young ones are conducted by shepherds' boys each to its own mother. (Schaff, Bib. Dict.) The office of the eastern shepherd, as described in the Bible, was attended with much hardship, and even danger. He was exposed to the extremes of heat and cold (Gen. xxxi :4o) ; his food fre quently consisted of the precarious supplies af forded by nature, such as the fruit of the "syca more," or Egyptian fig (Amos vii :14), the "husks" of the carob-tree (Luke xv :16), and perchance the locusts and wild honey which supported the Baptist (Matt. iii :4) ; he had to encounter the attacks of wild beasts, occasionally of the larger species, such as lions, wolves, panthers, and bears (I Sam. xvii :34; Is. xxxi :4; Jer. v :6 ; Amos iii: 12) ; nor was he free from the risk of robbers or predatory hordes (Gen. xxxi :39). To meet these various foes, the shepherd's equipment con sisted of the following articles: A mantle, made probably of sheep's-skin with the fleece on, which he turned inside out in cold weather, as im plied in the comparison in Jer. xliii :12 (cf. Juv. xiv. 187) ; a scrip or wallet, containing a small amount of food (I Sam. xvii :40 ; Porter's Damas cus, ii. Ion) ; a sling, which is still the favorite weapon of the Bedouin shepherd (I Sam. xvii :4o; Burckhardt's Notes, i. 57) ; and, lastly, a staff, which served the double purpose of a weapon against foes and a crook for the management of the flock ( I Sam. xvii :4o; Ps. xxiii :4; Zech. xi: 7). If the shepherd was at a distance from his home he was provided with a light tent (Cant.