Nadene Goldfoot
Population geneticists and scientists have divided our time period between hunters and farmers. I'd add Shepherds in that mix as well,, for much came from generations of our men being shepherds.
Abram, later called Abraham, was a shepherd. He was not born to be a shepherd. His father was an idol-maker in the large and bustling city of Ur of the Chaldees, which has already been excavated and its finds proving this fact. Abraham left Ur and moved to Canaan with his father. He turned to his sheep-herding skills and had men to help.
When Abraham left his home in Haran and set out for the land of Canaan, his family was probably already quite large by modern standards. We know that his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot came with him, but so did an unspecified number of people and possessions (Gen. 12:5). Soon Abraham would become very wealthy, having acquired servants and livestock as well as silver and gold (Gen. 12:16; 13:2). He received people and animals from Pharaoh during his stay in Egypt, and the precious metals would have been the result of commercial transactions, indicating the Lord as the ultimate one to bestow blessing.
Evidence that both Abraham and Lot had become successful lies in the quarreling that broke out between the herders for each family over the inability of the land to support so many grazing animals. Eventually, the two had to part company in order to support their business activities (Gen. 13:11).
Gen.13:5-13) And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. 6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and between the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 8 And Abram said unto Lot, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and between thee and between my herdmen and between thy herdmen, for we be brethren; Lot was Abraham's nephew. 9 Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, I will go to the left. "Lot saw the Plain of Jordan that was well watered. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan while Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched tents as far as Sodom." Here, cattle are mentioned, not sheep. Later, towards our day in the 1800s we find that sheep herders and cattlemen cannot share the same land, either.
But Abraham's son, Isaac, was a shepherd in the Negev, and so was his son, Jacob. The lessons they learned while carrying out their duties only helped to develop more dendrites in their brains in decision-making. One of Jacob's sons was Judah who had a son, Boaz, kinsman of Naomi of Bethlehem who married Ruth of Moab. They had a son, Oved whose son was Jesse, father of David, king of Israel. David was a great shepherd who caught the eye of the prophet, Samuel.
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David was chosen to be the King of Israel (1010-970 BCE) . We know him as the boy who kills Goliath, the Philistine giant as the mighty boy of God who destroys the enemies of God. He is the chosen King of Israel, the man who found favor with Samuel and G-d. "David: 34 I work as a shepherd for my father. Whenever a lion or a bear has come and attacked one of my lambs, 35 I have gone after it and struck it down to rescue the lamb from the predator’s mouth; if it turned to attack me, I would take it by the chin, beat it, and kill it. 36 I have killed both a lion and a bear; and as your servant I will kill this uncircumcised Philistine, too, since he has dared to taunt the armies of the living God."
The occupation of shepherd first appears in Gen. 4:2, when Abel, “a keeper of sheep,” comes into conflict with Cain, “a tiller of the ground,” and the shepherd’s humble status can be seen in the contrast drawn between David’s pastoral and royal careers (2Sam 7:8; Ps 78:70-71). Cain killed Abel. Most of the shepherd’s work involved a routine of leading the sheep to food and water and returning them to the safety of the fold. Shepherds were often nomads, required to put up with simple food, harsh weather (Gen 31:40), and primitive lodging (Song 1:8; Isa 38:12). Such routine hardships were occasionally accompanied by danger from wild animals, e.g., lions, bears, and wolves (1Sam 17:34-35; Isa 31:4; Amos 3:12; Mic 5:8; Shepherds also had to be on guard against thieves (Gen 31:39; Throughout the Bible, the customs of shepherds are often used to illustrate spiritual principles (e.g., sheep without a shepherd are like those who have strayed from God), and shepherds are compared to spiritual overseers (Num 27:16-17; The shepherd’s work is also used to describe God’s activity (Gen 48:15; Gen 49:24; Ps 23; Ezek 34).
They learned to defend their sheep from predators, to fight to defend them. They learned a skill in match-making to create the generations they were looking for. They learned empathy in helping to deliver the babies, to feel for the mothers, the miracle of life.
In Genesis 30 Laban asked Jacob to “name his wages,” and Jacob said, “Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. And . . . in the future . . . any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen” (Genesis 30:32–33). Laban agreed, and the animals were divided. Laban separated out the multi-colored animals, leaving only the solid-colored animals for his son-in-law to tend. The agreement seemed to favor Laban, as speckled or spotted sheep and goats were the exception, not the rule.
To increase his flocks (and diminish Laban’s), Jacob instituted some sort of folk-medicine selective breeding process. He took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled the bark to create white stripes on them. “Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted” (Genesis 30:38–39). It is unclear how or if these striped branches impacted the mating of the animals. The Bible simply records what Jacob did and the result in the flock, with no explanation. Jacob was practicing science and didn't know it, or did he?
They acted as the army, the doctors, and the mothers to these sheep, giving them tender love and care. They even may have learned of the partnership they might have had with a dog who could have helped them, though I haven't read about any on duty with them.
A drought hit Canaan and Jacob and his family turned to Egypt. They packed their things and the family of 70 people set out for Egypt. When they got there, they were able to let their sheep graze to their content. The Egyptian nobles saw that the family of 70 grew extra fast. No doubt they had mid-wives who were successful in delivering babies from years of practice with their sheep. The Israelites were eventually taken as slaves.
From the time they entered Egypt to the time Moses delivered them from slavery was 400 years. I imagine that only about 50 years after arriving were years of freedom. In fact, when Moses witnessed an overseer beating an Israelite slave, he attacked and killed him, which was not okay, so he realized what he had done and had to head for the bush, the wilds of Midian and stay there as he was now a wanted man. Zipporah is the wife of Moses, given to him in marriage by her
Resource:
Tanakh, The Stone Edition
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/HarperCollinsBibleDictionary/s/shepherd
https://www.gotquestions.org/Jacob-speckled-spotted.html
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