On the mountains of Israel by the rivers. The picture of the pleasant pasture-lands of Judah, almost, as it were, an expansion of Psalms 23:1-6; of the mountains which are not barren and stony, of the streams that flow calmly in the inhabited places of the country, serves as a parable of that which is to follow on the restoration of Israel.
The sheep that had been wandering so long in the wilderness should at last lie down in a fat pasture (verse 15), and the tender care of the Shepherd should watch with an individualizing pity over each sheep that had been brought back.
Every broken limb should be bound up. Every sickness should be treated with its appropriate means of healing.