Thematic Bible: Israel becoming lost


Thematic Bible



In those days and in that time,'" {declares} Yahweh, "the people of Israel will come, they and the people of Judah together. {Weeping as they go}, they will go, and Yahweh their God they will seek. They will ask [the] way [to] Zion, [turning] their faces there. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh [by] {an everlasting covenant} [that] will not be forgotten. My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They led them away [to the] mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their resting place.

Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them saying, "Do not go on the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans, but go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And [as you] are going, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near!'

"Woe [to the] shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture," {declares} Yahweh. {Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You yourselves have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you do not attend to them. Look, I [will] punish you [for] the evil of your deeds," {declares} Yahweh. "Then I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their grazing place, and they will be fruitful, and they will become numerous. read more.
And I will raise up over them shepherds, and they will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear, and they will not be dismayed, and they will not be missing," {declares} Yahweh.

And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying}, "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and you must say to them, to the shepherds, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Woe [to] the shepherds of Israel who were feeding themselves! Must not the shepherds feed the flock? The fat you eat, and you clothe [yourself] [with] the wool; the well-nourished [animals] you slaughter, [but] you do not feed the flock. read more.
The weak you [have] not strengthened, and the sick you [have] not healed, and {with respect to} the hurt you have not bound [them up], and you [have] not brought back the scattered, and you [have] not sought the lost, but [rather] you ruled over them with force and with ruthlessness. And they were scattered {without} a shepherd, and they were as food for all the animals of the field [when] they were scattered. My flock went astray upon all of the mountains and on every high hill, and [so] upon all the surface of the world my flock were scattered, and {there was no one seeking them}, and {there was no one searching for them}." Therefore, hear, shepherds, the word of Yahweh: "{As I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "{Surely} because my flock have become as plunder, and my flock became as food to all the animals of the field, since there was not a shepherd, [since] my shepherds [have] not sought my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and they fed not my flock,'" therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] against the shepherds, and I will seek my flock from their hand, and I will put an end to them from shepherding flocks, and the shepherds will {no longer} feed themselves, and I will deliver my flocks from their mouth, so that they will not be as food for them."

"O sword, awake against my shepherd, against [the] man [who is] my associate," {declares} Yahweh of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the small [ones]. {And then} in all the land," {declares} Yahweh, "{two thirds} will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left alive in it. And I will bring the [remaining] third into the fire, and I will refine them like [one] refines silver, and I will test them like [one] tests gold. They will call my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'Yahweh [is] my God.'"