God, the True Shepherd

¹¹ For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep and will sort them out.^{(A) 12} As shepherds sort out their flocks when they are among scattered sheep,^[a] so I will sort out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.^{(B) 13} I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land.^{(C) 14} I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.^{(D) 15} I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.^(E)

²³ I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd.^(A)

¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^(A)

Benediction

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,^(A)

⁴ And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.^(A)