The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
- NKJV The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.
- NASB The words of the wise are like goads, and masters of these collections are like driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.
- NLT The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wise words prod and steady us like goads and firmly fixed nails, all coming from one Shepherd. It affirms that true wisdom ultimately has a single divine source.
Overview
Wise sayings are compared to goads that spur an animal forward and to nails that fasten things securely, meaning they both provoke action and give settled stability. The phrase "one shepherd" is widely understood to point to God as the ultimate author of all genuine wisdom, given through human teachers. This points forward to Jesus, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), whose words give both direction and security to his flock.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Acts 2:37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
- Jer 23:29“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
- Heb 4:12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Ezek 34:23I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.
- 2 Cor 10:4The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
- Prov 22:17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—
- Isa 40:11He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
- Prov 1:6by understanding the proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
- John 3:10“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things?
- Ps 23:1A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
- Matt 3:7But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
- John 10:14I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
- Isa 22:23I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.
- Ps 80:1For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm of Asaph. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
- 1 Pet 5:4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
- Heb 13:20Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
- Gen 49:24Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
- Ezra 9:8But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 12:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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