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Ecclesiastes 12 · a question people ask

"which are given from one shepherd" (12:11). Who is the one shepherd?

In the text

The verse says, "The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd" (12:11). In Hebrew one shepherd is ro'eh echad (tap shepherd). The book doesn't say who he is, and it gives no other verse about him. So these notes don't name him either. What the verse does say is that the words of the wise are "like goads" and "like nails well fastened", and that they "are given from one shepherd" (12:11). The next verse turns to "my son" (12:12), and then comes the book's close (12:13-14).

The verses

“The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:11-14 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ecclesiastes 12

Ecclesiastes 12: The end of the matter

The book's close gives two commands, "Fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13), and in Hebrew both verbs are already in the pictures just before it: "the keepers of the house" (12:3) and "they shall be afraid of heights" (12:5). And the matter of "the end of the matter" is davar, the book's first word: "The words of the Preacher" (1:1).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions