with greater force and beauty, than in a passage of Ezekiel, where Jehovah promises to gather his people from all their dispersions, and plant them in their own land : "For thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them upon a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment." In the seventeenth verse, he promises to "judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats." To these words of the prophet, our Lord evidently alludes in his sublime description of the last judgment: "And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left."u That the shepherd might be able with greater ease and certainty to distinguish his sheep from those belonging to * Ezek. xxxiv, 11, &c. u Mat. XXV, 32. other flocks, he set a peculiar mark on some part of their body. To this custom Virgil alludes in his first Georgic: 1. 263. "Aut Pecori signum, aut numeros impressit acervis.” Columella says it was in the month of January that the shepherd marked the full grown lambs, and all other cattle great and small. To this practice the Saviour seems to allude in these words; "I know my sheep," by the seal of my spirit impressed on their hearts." It is added, "the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." In this number, David certainly deserves a place, who repeatedly risked his life in the defence of his father's property. It is no uncommon thing in the east, for the shepherds to encounter the lion and the bear, and drive them from the fold. But, the reference is to a greater than David, or any other eastern shepherd. The dangers they encountered, and the loss they sustained, were nothing to the labours and sufferings of Jesus Christ, who freely laid down his life for the sins of his people, magnifying the law, and satisfying the justice of his Father, in their name. The shepherds of the east were accountable for the flocks under their charge. Of this fact, the following extract from the Gentoo laws, furnishes a remarkable proof: "Cattle shall be delivered over to the cow-herd in the morning; the cow-herd shall tend them the whole day with grass and water; and in the evening, shall redeliver them to the master, in the same manner as they were intrusted to him; if, by the fault of the cow-herd, any of the cattle be lost or stolen, that cow-herd shall make it good. When De Re Rustica. w John X, * See Iliad, lib. xii, 1. 302-306; and lib. xviii, 1. 161. 27. In the very same manner the Italian shepherds tended their flocks. Varro de Re Rust. lib. ii, cap. 10. a cow-herd has led cattle to any distant place to feed, if any die of some distemper, notwithstanding the cow-herd applied the proper remedy, the cow-herd shall carry the head, the tail, the fore-foot, or some such convincing proof taken from that animal's body, to the owner of the cattle; having done this, he shall be no farther answerable; if he neglects to act thus, he shall make good the loss." In this very situation was Jacob with Laban, his father-in-law, as we learn from his memorable expostulation, addressed to that deceitful and envious relation: "This twenty years,' said the angry patriarch, "have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young; and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts, I brought not unto thee; I bore the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night." By the blessing of God upon his incessant care, the flocks of Laban had not cast their young; so that his stock, which was but very limited, when Jacob arrived, had "increased into a multitude." The Syrian shepherds were exposed with their flocks, to all the vicissitudes of the seasons. It was indeed impossible to erect buildings capacious enough to receive the countless numbers of cattle, which constituted the wealth of those pastoral princes. Their servants were, therefore, compelled to watch the flocks night and day. The flocks of Libya "often graze both night and day, and for a whole month together, and repair into long deserts, without any shelter, so wide the plain extends." "Sæpe dum, noctemque, et totum ex ordini mensem Pascitur, itque pecus longa in deserta sine ullis Hospitiis tantum campi jacet." Gen. xxxi, 41. Vir. 3 Geor. 1. 340." See also Varro de Re Rustica, lib. ii, cap. 2; and Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 44, p. 452. The Mesopotamian shepherd was reduced to the same incessant labour, chilled by the piercing cold of the morning, and scorched by the succeeding heats of a flaming sun, the opposite action of which often swells and chafes his lips and face. Jacob complains, "Thus I was; in the day, the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes." In times long posterior to the age when Jacab flourished, the angels who descended to announce the birth of our Lord, found the shepherds to whomthey were sent, keeping watch over their flocks by night. To prevent them from wandering, they shut them up in a fold formed of hurdles, and took their station on the outside, to defend them from the attacks of wild beasts, or bands of robbers, that infested the country, and preyed upon the property of the peaceful and industrious inhabitant.d When the prophet Ezekiel threatened the Ammonites, that Rabbah, their capital, should become a stable for camels, we are not to imagine that the Arabian shepherds were careful to provide such coverts for these more tender animals. Chardin says, that as they feed them on the ground, and do not litter them, they never think of erecting such buildings for their reception. The same fact is admitted by Dr. Shaw, when he makes a supposition that the cattle of these countries would be much more numerous than they are, if they had some little shelter in winter. The only shelter to which they have recourse, is the a Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 54. The traveller has to undergo the same distressing vicissitudes in the depth of an Egyptian winter-" scorched by day and frozen by night.” Buckingham's Travels, vol. i, preface, p. 15. © Gen. xxxi, 40. d Varro de Re Rust. lib. ii, cap. 10. Horace, Epod. 2. e Trav. vol. i, p. 310. desolate ruin; and to this circumstance the prophet Ezekiel most probably alluded, when he described Rabbah as about to become a stable for camels, or as the original term may be rendered with equal proprit ty, a place of camels, where they screen themselves from the rays of a burning sun, and feed on the nettles, and other plants, which spring up among the mouldering walls of ruined habitations. The same term is rendered in the twenty-third psalm, pastures; and perhaps all that the prophet means is only this, that Rabbah should be so completely destroyed, that camels should feed on the place where it stood; and if this was his meaning, it has been long since realized, for the last remains of that proud city have entirely disappeared. f The greatest skill and vigilance, and even tender care, are required in the management of such immense flocks as wander on the Syrian plains. Their prodigious numbers, compel the keepers to remove them too frequently in search of fresh pastures, which proves very destructive to the young that have not strength to follow. This circumstance displays the energy of Jacob's apology to his brother Esau, for not attending him as he requested: "The flocks and herds with young are with me; and if men should over drive them one day, all the flocks would die." It illustrates also another passage in the prophecies of Isaiah: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" a beautiful image, expressing with great force and elegance, the tender and unceasing attention of the shepherd to his flock. f Chandler's Trav. p. 130, 131, 151. |