The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel

The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel is a two-part name for God tucked inside Genesis 49:24. Jacob spoke it while blessing his son Joseph. One half pictures a shepherd, someone who walks with the flock, finds food and water, and drives off danger. The other half pictures a stone, something heavy and fixed that does not shift. In one short line Jacob said God is both: the One who moves with you and the One who never moves.

Where the words came from

The Mighty God of Jacob, the title just before this one in the same verse, is about strength under attack. This name is different. It comes from the two things Jacob knew best after a long, hard life: flocks and stones.

Jacob was a shepherd for decades. He tended his uncle Laban's sheep and goats for twenty years in Haran, and he described the job honestly: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes (Genesis 31:40). Shepherds stayed outside in every kind of weather. They led the flock to grass, guarded it at night, and went looking for the strays. When his family later moved to Egypt and Pharaoh asked what work they did, his sons answered that they were shepherds, and their fathers before them (Genesis 47:3).

Stones marked almost every turning point in his story. Running from his brother Esau, he slept on the bare ground at Bethel with a stone for a pillow, dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven, and in the morning stood that stone up as a marker (Genesis 28:18). When he and Laban made peace, he set up another stone as a witness (Genesis 31:45). When God met him at Bethel again years later, he raised a pillar of stone there too (Genesis 35:14).

So when the old man looked back on his life, these were the pictures that came to mind. God had gone with him like a shepherd, and God had stayed firm like a stone.

Ro'eh and even in plain Hebrew

The Hebrew phrase is ro'eh even Yisrael.

• Ro'eh means "shepherd." It comes from the verb ra'ah, which means to tend a flock, to lead it to pasture and feed it. In the Bible's world kings were also called shepherds, so the word holds both gentle care and the right to lead.
• Even is the everyday Hebrew word for a stone, from a small pebble to a huge block. Strong's dictionary ties it to the idea of building. A stone like this is something you can set a foundation on.
• Yisrael is Israel, Jacob's God-given name, and later the name of the whole people who came from him.

Shortly before this, when he was sick in bed, Jacob had already used the shepherd verb about God. While blessing Joseph's two sons he spoke of the God which fed me all my life long unto this day (Genesis 48:15). In the King James the word is fed, but the Hebrew is the shepherding word, and several modern versions use the word shepherd there. Jacob was saying that God had shepherded him for almost a century and a half.

The grammar of the phrase in Genesis 49:24 is hard, and honest readers do not all agree. The King James sets it in parentheses: (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:). "From thence" means "from there." Many take it to mean that Joseph's strength came from the God who is Israel's Shepherd and Stone. Some Jewish commentators have read it as speaking of Joseph, who fed and protected his family in Egypt. Some other versions read the same Hebrew letters a little differently and connect Joseph's help to the name of the Shepherd. There is no need to pretend to be certain. The two pictures themselves, Shepherd and Stone, are clear.

This is also the only verse where God is called "the stone of Israel" in exactly these words. Later writers more often call Him a rock, using a different Hebrew word, tsur, which means a large rock or cliff.

King James verses on the Shepherd and the Stone

Once Jacob said it, both pictures kept growing through the Old Testament.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Psalm 80:1

This prayer calls God by nearly the same title and even mentions Joseph. "Give ear" means listen. The writer was asking the Shepherd to come and help His flock when they were in trouble.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Psalm 23:1-2

David, who had also been a shepherd boy, wrote the most famous version of what Jacob said. I shall not want means I will not lack what I need.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Isaiah 40:11

Here the Shepherd carries the smallest lambs close to His chest and goes slowly for the mothers. It is a picture of strength used gently.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

Isaiah 28:16

The Stone becomes a foundation. A corner stone was a key stone set at the corner of a building, one the other stones lined up with. A tried stone has been tested and did not crack. The New Testament later applies this verse to Jesus, and the book follows that thread in full.

One who goes with you, one who holds you

Some seasons call for a guide. You are starting a new school, moving to a new town, beginning a job, or walking through a loss you never saw coming. You need someone who goes ahead and knows the way. That is the Shepherd. You will not walk into any place He has not already seen.

Other seasons call for solid ground. Friends move away, a relationship ends, the news is bad, or your feelings swing from one day to the next. You need something that stays put. That is the Stone. Your moods are not the foundation. He is.

Jacob had both kinds of seasons, and he did not handle them well. He lied, he schemed, and he played favorites with his children. Yet at the end he could say that God had shepherded him all his life. The Shepherd had not given up on a difficult sheep.

• Think back over the last year. Where can you now see that you were being led, even if it did not feel like it then?
• Ask what you have been building your life on: grades, money, popularity, one person. Is it a stone or sand?
• Read Psalm 23 slowly, out loud, and notice every place the Shepherd does something.

The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel is name 14 of the 70 in the book. It follows the Mighty God of Jacob in the same verse. The shepherd picture returns later as Jehovah-rohi, the LORD my shepherd, and the rock picture as God is my rock. Next in the list is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You can see every name on the names of God in the Bible page.