Whenever a sheep was killed by wild animals, I always bore the loss myself. I didn't take it to you to show that it was not my fault. You demanded that I make good anything that was stolen during the day or during the night.

Many times I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was not able to sleep.

One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain.

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up.

"Your Majesty," David said, "I take care of my father's sheep. Any time a lion or a bear carries off a lamb,

I go after it, attack it, and rescue the lamb. And if the lion or bear turns on me, I grab it by the throat and beat it to death.

He chose his servant David; he took him from the pastures,

where he looked after his flocks, and he made him king of Israel, the shepherd of the people of God.

As surely as I am the living God, you had better listen to me. My sheep have been attacked by wild animals that killed and ate them because there was no shepherd. My shepherds did not try to find the sheep. They were taking care of themselves and not the sheep.

All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life---life in all its fullness.

When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.