Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss Hebrew vocabulary, shepherd imagery, and the legacy of King David in Jeremiah 23:1-6. The text is appointed for the Feast of Christ the King (Proper 29), in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.
Shepherds and Kings (Feast of Christ the King)
Voiceover Voices:
Wouldn’t it be great if God were indeed the shepherd in charge? Yes, I suppose it would be. That would be the easy way to go.
Helena Martin:
This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: A Lectionary Podcast from Yale Bible Study.
This week, we wrap up our time in Year C and its emphasis on the Gospel According to Luke. Next Monday we’ll be back as usual, but we’ll be in a whole new year of the lectionary, Year A, which focuses on the Gospel According to Matthew. That also means that this podcast has been running for a whole year. Whether you’ve been listening since the beginning, if you’re a new listener or maybe you just drop by every once in a while, thank you so much for tuning in.
This episode we have Peter Hawkins, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature and Senior Lecturer, Eric Reymond. They’re discussing Jeremiah 23:1-6 which is appointed for Track 1 of the 24th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 29) in Year C. Here’s the text.
Helena Martin:
[Jeremiah 23:1-6]
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Peter Hawkins:
Well, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, right? That’s the text from the Bible that everybody used to know, and maybe still does at least recognize it as the 23rd Psalm.
So here we go back to shepherds and all kinds of shepherds. I mean, there are bad shepherds. They destroy, they scatter the sheep, the flock, their wards. And then there’s God who steps in, takes over from the bad shepherds and gathers a remnant of the flock. Brings them together out of the lands where they’ve wandered. Bring them back into the fold if you will.
And then God speaks through the prophet saying, “I will raise up shepherds.” In other words, I’m a shepherd says the Lord, but also I’m going to bring about good shepherds. And then as the text continues, they seem to be in the dynasty of David, who traditionally wrote, said, sang, saying “the Lord is my shepherd.” So, I’m wondering if you can tell us something about shepherds and the prophetic point of view on them.
Eric Reymond:
Right. Okay. This passage is interesting because it plays with a little bit of the Hebrew vocabulary involving the word shepherds. So, in Hebrew the word for shepherd here is ro’im and this is the plural form. The wordplay involves the contrast between that word and the word for evil, which is roa’ which occurs in verse two. And which is what the bad ro’im are doing or accused of doing. And so that contrast is I think, informing in part this image of the bad shepherds. And what I also find interesting in conjunction with that kind of wordplay is that there’s also a wordplay involving the root paqad, the verb paqad, which means, which is often translated as, to visit.
And in verse two, you have this repetition of the verb paqad, where it would be translated differently because it has two different senses. And the first case it’s accusing the bad shepherds of not taking care of their flock. You did not take care of them, that’s paqad. You did not paqad them.
And so, as a result, God says, I will paqad over you the evil that you’ve done. And in this case, the verb paqad has the notion of, I will inflict punishment on you. The notion of David as this image of a branch, a chute, as a vegetation that is going to branch up and represent the rescuer of the people. This is a common metaphor and is something that is seen more and more frequently as time goes on after the time of Jeremiah and the time of the dead sea scrolls and in later writings.
Peter Hawkins:
Eric, as you’re speaking, I’m just thinking back in first Samuel when the people want a king and the prophet says, “no, the Lord is your king.” But they want to be like the other nations and so they get Saul. We know how that turns out. Then King David. And then they get Solomon and then we see the destruction of the united kingdom and so on and so forth. What do you make of this human solution to the problem of “flock”? Wouldn’t it be great if God were indeed the shepherd in charge?
Eric Reymond:
Yes, I suppose it would be. That would be the easy way to go. But I think there’s a, it’s represented in this way. But at least the person who is going to be the king and rule is going to rule with intelligence and with knowledge and wisdom.
Peter Hawkins:
Christians are so familiar with Jesus as the good shepherd, especially in the Gospel of John, I know my sheep and my sheep know me. The real shepherd lays down his life for the flock and so on. And here we have in the prophetic literature, this emphasis on good shepherd and God is a shepherd. Does this come, do you think this metaphor, this likeness, simply from daily life?
Eric Reymond:
I think in part. It also entwines with the story of David. David is the shepherd, is the youngest of the family. Is the young one who is responsible for doing the rather menial, simple task of looking after the flock. I think in some ways that, and I don’t know which came first necessarily in terms of the stories of David or these metaphors, but I think it is linked to David and his origin as a shepherd.
Peter Hawkins:
Caring, nurturing, uniting seems to be the, I mean the care for the flock, seems to be the dominant element of what a shepherd means, at least in this passage. And the shepherd who is the king deals wisely and executes justice and righteousness in the land. So, we move from a literal taking care of a flock, keeping it together, defending it against wolves, to a notion of wisdom and justice and righteousness. Justice and righteousness, big words. What are they in the Hebrew?
Eric Reymond:
So, in verse five I think you’re referring to, right? He will do justice and righteousness. These are the words mishpat and tzedakah and are translated in various contexts differently, but here justice and righteousness.
Helena Martin:
Thanks for listening. And thank you Professors Hawkins and Reymond for your insight on Jeremiah.
On Friday we’ll have a special episode of the texts appointed for Thanksgiving, and then we’ll have a regular episode again on Monday.
Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale
Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production
Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and
Executive Producer, Helena Martin. Our theme music and mixing on today’s episode are by
Calvin Linderman.
We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.
Book of the Bible:
Jeremiah
Subjects:
Jeremiah
Guests
Text
New Revised Standard Version Bible
Copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Credits
Host and Executive Producer: Helena Martin
Production Manager: Kelly Morrissey
Creator and Managing Editor: Joel Baden
Assistant Producer: Aidan Stoddart
Music: Calvin Linderman
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