79:13 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will continually thank you. 1
We will tell coming generations of your praiseworthy acts. 2
95:7 For he is our God;
we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep he owns. 3
Today, if only you would obey him! 4
100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us and we belong to him; 5
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;
each of us had strayed off on his own path,
but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. 6
1 tn Or (hyperbolically) “will thank you forever.”
2 tn Heb “to a generation and a generation we will report your praise.” Here “praise” stands by metonymy for the mighty acts that prompt worship. Cf. Ps 9:14.
3 tn Heb “of his hand.”
4 tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.
5 tn The present translation (like most modern translations) follows the Qere (marginal reading), which reads literally, “and to him [are] we.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and not we.” The suffixed preposition לו (“to him”) was confused aurally with the negative particle לא because the two sound identical.
6 tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of פָגַע (paga’) means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, “encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -בְּ (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -בְּ. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.
7 tn Heb, “the sheep of my pasture, you are human.” See 36:37-38 for a similar expression. The possessive pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation to balance “I am your God” in the next clause.
8 tn Grk “What man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.
9 sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.
10 tn Or “desert,” but here such a translation might suggest neglect of the 99 sheep left behind.
11 tn Grk “go after,” but in contemporary English the idiom “to look for” is used to express this.
12 sn Until he finds it. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.
13 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
14 tn Grk “And coming into his…” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
15 sn A touch of drama may be present, as the term calls together can mean a formal celebration (1 Kgs 1:9-10).
16 tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215). It occurs before “neighbors” as well (“his friends and his neighbors”) but has not been translated the second time because of English style.