Shepherd

A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards herds of sheep.

Quotes

The shepherd adorns the plain with his ewes and lambs. ~ Debate between the Hoe and the Plough

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. ~ Jesus

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty. ~ Abraham Lincoln

• The shepherd adorns the plain with his ewes and lambs.
  • Debate between the Hoe and the Plough (middle to late 3rd millennium BCE). [1]

• The word of Jehovah again came to me, saying: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to the shepherds, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Is it not the flock that the shepherds should feed? You eat the fat, you clothe] yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the fattest animal, but you do not feed the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bandaged the injured or brought back the strays or looked for the lost; rather, you have ruled them with harshness and tyranny. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; they were scattered and became food for every wild beast of the field. My sheep were straying on all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the surface of the earth, with no one searching for them or seeking to find them.
  • Bible, Ezekiel 34: 1-6 NWT.

• Ah! what is love? It is a pretty thing,
  As sweet unto a shepherd as a king;
  And sweeter too,
  For kings have cares that wait upon a crown,
  And cares can make the sweetest love to frown;
  Ah then, ah then,
  If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
  What lady would not love a shepherd swain?
  • Robert Greene, "The Shepherd's Wife's Song", line 1, from Mourning Garment (1590); Dyce p. 305.

• I am like a sheep who has no reliable shepherd; there is no reliable herdsman to lead me on.
  • Gudea, Letter from Gudea to his god imploring support, late 3rd millennium BCE, at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.

• This battle fares like to the morning's war,
  When dying clouds contend with growing light;
  What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
  Can neither call it perfect day, nor night.
  • Henry VI of England in Henry VI, Part 3, scene v, written by William Shakespeare

• I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
  • Jesus, as quoted in the Gospel of John 10:9-11.

• The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.
  • Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865, p. 138.

• The star that bids the shepherd fold,
  Now the top of heaven doth hold.
  • John Milton, Comus (1637), line 93.

• A man's personal god is a shepherd who finds pasturage for the man. Let him lead him like sheep to the food they can eat.
  • Sumerian proverb, Collection III at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

• Youthful Utu chose the shepherd in his heart. Years of plenty are assigned to Culgi, the trustworthy shepherd, the king, as his fate. From the shrine in Nibru, Enlil bestowed this on the trustworthy shepherd, whose fate is determined by Utu.
  • Shulgi in a tablet (𒁾) to Utu, Text online at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, early 2nd millennium BCE.