The Whole Land Will Once Again Become A Place Of Flocks And Herds (Jeremiah 33:12-13)
To an agricultural people this was an essential part of the re-establishment of the land. Once again the land, which had become so desolate, would be filled with flocks and herds. This would be the sign of its prosperity. The land would be filled with Jacobs, feeding their flocks and seeing their numbers grow. It would be back to the good old days.
“Thus says YHWH of hosts.
Yet again will there be in this place,
Which is waste, without man and without beast,
And in all its cities,
A habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the lowland,
And in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin,
And in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah,
Will the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers,
Says YHWH.”
Note again the vivid contrast being expressed. Initially the land would be waste, and would be emptied of man and beast, but then it would become repopulated with both man and beast. The ‘cities' would be mainly shepherds' encampments, as they gathered together for mutual protection, with their watchtowers and their sheepfolds. And they would be found all over the land, in the hill country, and in the lowlands (the Shephelah), in the cities of the Negeb (in the south), and in the land of Benjamin (in the north), and in the places around Jerusalem and in the varied cities of Judah. There the flocks would lie down, and there they would be counted by the counters. Note again the opening and closing ‘says YHWH' stressing that YHWH has spoken.
It would be interesting to know how the counting would take place, for it is very probable that few if any shepherds could actually count proficiently to any large extent. (Learning to count takes considerable effort, an effort which may well have not been seen as worthwhile. Such a skill was not really needed by shepherds who would recognise their own sheep without having to count them). Possibly shepherds had a number of small stones reflecting the number of sheep, and the sheep would be numbered by dropping the stones into a vessel as the sheep were driven by. Or there may have been specialist counters who performed this function for the shepherds (as the text may seem to indicate). Or the assessment may have been by names stored in the memory, ‘he calls his own sheep by name' (John 10:3). The shepherd would know every one of his sheep and would easily spot if one was missing.