Bible Dictionary
SHEEP TENDING
Sheep tending was the pastoral work of guarding, feeding, and leading flocks. Scripture frequently uses the shepherd’s care for sheep as an image of God’s care and of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd.
Definition
Sheep tending is the pastoral work of guarding, feeding, and leading sheep. It includes the daily care involved in maintaining a flock and is one of the most familiar occupational settings used in biblical imagery.
Biblical Usage
The Bible uses the shepherd’s relationship with sheep to portray God’s care for His people and Jesus’ relation to His followers as the Good Shepherd. The shepherd image expresses guidance, protection, and intimate responsibility.
Historical Background
Pastoral life in the Holy Land was described as remaining substantially similar from the time of Abraham. Flocks were fed on the plateaus east of the Jordan and in the mountains of Palestine and Syria.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ten'-ding: The Scriptural allusions to pastoral life and the similes drawn from that life are the most familiar and revered in the Bible. Among the first verses that a child learns is "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not wants" (Ps 23:1 the King James Version, the English Revised Version). What follower of the Master does not love to dwell on the words of the "Good Shepherd" chapter in the Gospel of John (Joh 10)? Jesus must have drawn a sympathetic response when He referred to the relationship of sheep to shepherd, a relationship familiar to all His hearers and doubtless shared by some of them with their flocks. As a rule the modern traveler in the Holy Land meets with disappointment if he comes expecting to see things as they were depicted in the Bible. An exception to this is the pastoral life, which has not changed one what since Abraham and his descendants fed their flocks on the rich plateaus East of the Jordan or on the mountains of Palestine and Syria. One may count among his most prized experiences the days and nights spent under the spell of Syrian shepherd life.</p><p>James A. Patch</p>