He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
⛓ Read Isaiah 40 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.
Allusion3
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arm' supplies the tender LORD-as-shepherd image behind the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Coherent with John's identification of Jesus with the LORD's own shepherding care.
Medium confidenceThe LORD 'will feed his flock like a shepherd' and gently carry the lambs—matching the specific pairing of lambs and sheep in Peter's threefold charge. Strong coherence and the distinctive lamb/sheep doublet raise volume above the generic shepherd topos.
Medium confidenceThe shepherd who gathers lambs and carries them in his bosom illuminates the man carrying the found sheep on his shoulders rejoicing. The tender carrying gesture is distinctive and shared, strengthening the divine-shepherd reading. Coheres with Ezekiel 34 as the comfort-of-God shepherd image.
Medium confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'He will feed his flock like a shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms' colors the tender-shepherd ideal that the elders are to embody and that the chief Shepherd fulfills.
Medium confidenceThe tender shepherd who gathers and feeds the flock informs the pastoral 'shepherd the assembly' charge (v.28); the positive shepherd image complements the Ezekiel 34 indictment.
Medium confidenceThe shepherd-God who gathers and gently carries the flock extends the consolation oracle's pastoral tenderness that 'Father of mercies' evokes. The echo is thematic rather than verbal and is subsidiary to the louder 40:1 contact.
Low confidence