That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.
Parallel translations
- WEB There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
- KJV And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
- BSB And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
- NKJV Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
- NASB In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock at night.
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
Shepherds were watching their flocks by night nearby. It matters because God chose to announce the Savior's birth first to the lowly.
Overview
Luke introduces shepherds keeping watch in the fields outside Bethlehem. Shepherds were ordinary, often looked-down-upon laborers. That the angelic announcement comes first to them displays God's grace toward the humble and reflects the gospel's reach to the lowly rather than the elite.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 31:39–40That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
- Ps 78:70–71He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
- 1 Sam 17:34–35David said to Saul, “Your servant was keeping his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock,
- John 10:8–12All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
- Exod 3:1–2Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb.
- Ezek 34:8As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 2:8 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.