2b. ...he leadeth me beside/ the still waters The shepherd digs a still pool with his staff beside a rushing stream. A sheep drinks from it, as others rest nearby. Flanking angels hold fountains in the scene borders. Water is essential to the shepherd's care of his sheep in the arid climate of the Middle East. The Syrian shepherd describes how the shepherd spends much of his day looking for water for his sheep. He makes a "still" pool for the sheep to drink, as the gushing hillside spring is often inaccessible or frightening to the sheep and the rare rushing river can carry the sheep away due to the buoyancy of their wool. The shepherd gives a special call and the reassured sheep "lie down" in the pastures and drink at the quiet pool. One recalls the thirsting Israelites in the wilderness saved by the divinely-revealed spring in the rock. Jesus speaks of the water of life, and of its spiritually cleansing and restorative powers. Jesus himself is described in Revelation as the Lamb who "will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water."