This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.
This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. What is said in these three verses, though admitting of important application to every faithful shepherd of God's flock, is in its direct and highest sense true only of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," who in the first five verses seems plainly, under the simple character of a true shepherd, to be drawing His own portrait. So Lampe, Stier, etc.