What Does Jeremiah 23:4 Mean?
And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they will feed them; they shall not fear again, nor be shattered, and none shall be found missing, says the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.THE KEY
The promise of safety reaches its deepest point in the last phrase: under true shepherding, no one goes missing.
THE MEANING
The promise speaks now to people under care that actually tends them: fear recedes, dismay loosens its hold, and no one is left unaccounted for. The shepherds’ care is more than a title; it is the ongoing work of tending the flock.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fear and dismay must be permanent, or that anyone can go missing without being noticed.
THE ROOT
יִפָּקֵדוּ
yippāqēdû
GROWS FROM
פקד
The root’s range includes attending to, visiting, appointing, and, in this form, being missing or lacking.
“found missing” in this verse is yippāqēdû. The verse holds both ends of being accounted for: the flock is attended to, and no one is missing from it. The root links the shepherds’ care with the promise that the flock will not be lacking.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: attend to; visit
פָּקַד
Jeremiah 23:2 uses this same root when it says the former shepherds did not attend to the flock.
pequddah: oversight; charge; visitation
פְּקֻדָּה
This related form shows the root’s connection to care entrusted as a responsibility.
רֹעִים
roʿim
GROWS FROM
רעה
To tend or pasture a flock.
“Shepherds” and “feed them” are forms of the same Hebrew root: רעה (raʿah, to tend or pasture). The verse presents shepherding as the continuing act of tending, not only the name of a role.
ALSO GROWS
roʿeh: shepherd; one who tends a flock
רֹעֶה
It names the kind of care the verse says is set over the people.
mirʿeh: pasture; grazing ground
מִרְעֶה
This related word connects tending with the place where a flock receives what sustains it.
THE PATTERN
When the flock is actively tended, want and dispersion give way to security and care.
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I do not come up short.I will seek the one who lost the way, and bring back the driven away, and bind up the broken, and hold up the sick. But the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly.THE THREAD
Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed my people; you have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the harm of your deeds, says the LORD.“Visited” in this verse and “be lacking” in Jeremiah 23:4 share פקד (paqad, attend to or visit), though they appear in different Hebrew forms. The earlier shepherds fail to attend to the flock and it is scattered; here, the promise is that no one will be missing.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us