Word study

Shepherd

1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: shepherd, shepherds, shepherding. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “shepherd” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • רָעָה rââhpasture, tend, grazetranslated this way 88 times of its 170 uses · Strong’s H7462Verb  ·  Translated: shepherd 42, shepherds 39, feed 18, graze 8

    Genesis 30:31 “What can I give you?” Laban asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.

    Exodus 2:17 And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.

    Full study and all 146 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ποιμήν poimḗna shepherdtranslated this way 17 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G4166Noun  ·  Translated: shepherd 13, shepherds 4, pastors 1

    Matthew 9:36 When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

    Mark 6:34 When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • ποιμαίνω poimaínōI shepherd, tendtranslated this way 7 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G4165Verb  ·  Translated: rule 3, shepherd 3, shepherding 2, shepherds 2

    Matthew 2:6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.’”

    Luke 17:7 Which of you whose servant comes in from plowing or shepherding in the field will say to him, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?

    Full study and all 11 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about shepherd: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.