who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”
⛓ Read Numbers 27 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.
Allusion4
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Moses prays for a successor so Israel will not be 'as sheep which have no shepherd,' the precise phrase Mark applies to the crowd. Jesus stepping in to teach is cast as the Moses-appointed shepherd over a leaderless people. Verbal correspondence and thematic coherence make this a strong allusion.
High confidenceMoses asks for a successor so the congregation 'may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.' Matthew's 'harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd' directly takes up this idiom; Jesus' compassion answers Israel's perennial need for a true shepherd-leader.
High confidenceIsrael as a congregation 'as sheep which have no shepherd,' Moses' prayer for a successor. Matthew uses this very phrase at 9:36 immediately before this commissioning, so it bleeds directly into the 'lost sheep' rationale for sending the Twelve.
Medium confidenceMoses' concern that the congregation not be 'as sheep without a shepherd' — behind Jesus' compassion on the hungry multitude (15:32) he refuses to send away; pastoral provision for a leaderless flock.
Medium confidenceEcho5
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The crowd as sheep without a shepherd needing a leader to go before them (Moses' prayer for a successor) frames Jesus' compassion and shepherd-feeding; explicit in Mark's parallel and coherent with Luke's new-Moses theme.
Medium confidenceThe crowd 'like sheep without a shepherd' (Moses' prayer for a successor to lead Israel out and in) underlies Jesus' compassion on the shepherdless multitude; Matthew states this compassion (cf. 9:36) and enacts the shepherd's provision here.
Medium confidenceThe qualification that the candidate 'accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us' echoes the idiom for leadership over Israel, 'who shall go out before them and come in before them' (of Joshua's commissioning). Volume: the 'go in and out' idiom is distinctive Septuagintal leadership language. Coherence reinforces the succession theme of the pericope. Low because the phrase is a common idiom (cf. Deut 31:2; 1 Sam 18:13).
Low confidence'Will go in and go out, and will find pasture' echoes the shepherd who leads Israel 'out' and brings them 'in' so they may be led to pasture. The go-in/go-out idiom for secure shepherded life is shared, though common in the OT.
Low confidencethe prayer that Israel not be 'as sheep which have no shepherd' is the source idiom of the scattered flock.
Low confidence