They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
⛓ Read Ezekiel 34 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Ezekiel indicts Israel's shepherds and says the flock was 'scattered, because there was no shepherd,' promising that God himself will shepherd them. Jesus' compassion and teaching enact Yahweh's promised shepherding of the abandoned flock. High thematic coherence with the immediately preceding failure of Herod.
High confidence'They were scattered because there was no shepherd.' Ezekiel's indictment of Israel's negligent shepherds and promise that God himself will shepherd the flock is the richest backdrop: Jesus' compassion enacts the LORD's pledge to seek the scattered sheep.
High confidenceEcho2
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The flock scattered and become food for 'every beast of the field' because there was no shepherd undergirds the warning that wolves will ravage the flock after Paul's departure (v.29); ties the wolf threat back into the Ezekiel 34 shepherd oracle.
Medium confidence'they were scattered because there was no shepherd' supplies the broader scattered-flock-without-shepherd motif that the Zechariah citation concentrates.
Medium confidence