Jeremiah 23:1-6 Commentary

Commentary:

This text thrives on a couple of significant contrasts: negligence vs. diligence and shepherd vs. king.

Negligence and Diligence

The first image this text offers us is of a shepherd who has become derelict in his responsibilities. Some texts translate the Hebrew to say he destroyed the flock.  Robert Alter is content with a softer word choice—“scatter”—not necessarily because it takes the shepherd off the hook.  On the contrary!  The shepherd is held culpable because he did not do the very thing his job required him to do: gather.  Instead of gathering, he scattered. Instead of attending to them, he was negligent with their care.  He needn’t destroy the flock actively. It is sufficient that he failed in his responsibility so that the flock’s demise is a result of the shepherd’s negligence. According to Alter, “Since it is the task of the shepherd to prevent any sheep in his flock from getting lost, the last meaning seems more likely. A shepherd who allows sheep to go astray is negligent.”

Because the negligent shepherd is a foil, we can experience an even greater appreciation for the Shepherd who is faithful in his task, who finds the sheep who have wandered off, who can attend to them and return them to safe pasture.  In the care of this tender Shepherd, the sheep are fruitful and the herd grows. Robert Alter reminds us that this language of “be fruitful and multiply” is “borrowed from the beginning of Genesis” suggesting “that the return to Zion will be a kind of second creation.”

Of Shepherds and Kings

The text, at least as it is set out for us in the Lectionary, takes another interesting turn as it moves from the imagery of a shepherd to that of a king.  On one hand, it isn’t that much of a stretch because the Shepherd we’ve been profiling in the first four verses is not a subsistence level herder.  By virtue of the fact that he is training under-shepherds for shift work in the field, this is a Shepherd who oversees something like a large family farm.

Just as the Shepherd raises up leaders among his apprentice-herders, so too God will raise up “a righteous shoot for David.”  This language is specific and would have held particular meaning for the first recipients of Jeremiah’s prophecy.  According to Robert Alter, “This phrase has currency as an epithet for the legitimate monarch not only in the Bible but in the Ugaritic literature before it.”

This “righteous shoot” is celebrated as a king whose reign will usher in prosperity, justice and righteousness.  The King (like the Shepherd) will rescue and cause the people (like the flock) to dwell securely in the land.  Jeremiah then offers up a name of this king.  As The CEB Study Bible puts it, “The name of this ideal king is The LORD Is Our Righteousness, which is a play on and contrast to the disappointing King Zedekiah”. King Zedekiah perhaps functioned in a similar role to the first, negligent shepherd that the Good Shepherd stepped in to replace.

The naming is significant, according to Alter, because “The prophet is surely playing on the common ancient Near Eastern practice of assigning a new name to the king when he assumes the throne.” In summary, and as revealed in his name, The CEB Study Bible concludes “God promises to raise up a wise and just king from David’s lineage who will fulfill the duties of kingship.”

The Hallmark of a Diligent King

Combining the insights above, The CEB Study Bible reminds us “it is significant that in this segment the characteristics of ideal rulers/kings pertain to domestic affairs—how the king treats their own people—and not foreign affairs.  Of course a leader—whether a Shepherd in the marketplace or a King on a state visit—has external responsibilities as well.  But the test of a Good Shepherd and a Devoted King is leadership that cares for the least, the lost, and the lonely among their own people.

This is a critical insight that we can draw from Jeremiah and overlay onto the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, whose first sermon laid out the charter of his leadership, as offered in a text by the prophet Isaiah, “to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  On this last Sunday of the Church Year, before the calendar rolls from Year C back to Year A in the Lectionary, we recall the preponderance of texts from the Gospel of Luke that have travelled with us over the past 12 months.  We recall the actions of Jesus and the stories he told, most especially his death (as told into today’s Lectionary selection from Luke 23) and his resurrection.  We see how each is an outworking of his inaugural sermon and how that sermon sets him up as the Diligent King prophesied in this week’s Hebrew Lectionary selection. It turns out to be a wonderful summation of a year spent with Jesus, particularly as revealed to us in the Gospel of Luke.

Illustration:

Note, as well that the diligent shepherd promises not only to tend the flock Himself but to train up under-shepherds who can work with him.  And under the watch of diligent under-shepherds, the flock will “no longer fear nor be frightened.”   The end result is that “none shall be missing,” It is a shame this text is not paired with a Gospel text pertaining to the Good Shepherd, though perhaps you will have a chance to draw out that connection in your preaching.  Because, of course, the parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15 holds a similar contrast.  Before we are introduced to the Shepherd who goes out to seek and to save, the text is clear that the shepherd first lost the sheep.  Greek is plenty comfortable with the passive voice and could have intimated that the sheep in question just wandered off. But, in fact, the shepherd is first culpable and then determined to restore what he had lost.  This also works well with the image of an under-shepherd, which we see here, following the example of the Good Shepherd who modeled and trained those learning from him.

[Note: In addition to our weekly Lectionary-based commentaries we now have a special Year A 2025 section of additional Advent and Christmas resources that we are pleased to provide.   Please check them out!]