The staff is used as a metaphor in the Bible as a symbol of both defense and comfort. For protection at night, sheep were kept in a sheepfold, an area surrounded by a stone wall and topped with briers to keep predators out. Often the sheepfold had a protected area included, such as a cave, for protection from the elements. The gate was guarded by the shepherd, where he slept at night to keep the sheep in and others out. Even today, if the sheep are prone to stray, the shepherd ties one leg of the animal to this tail.
Most sheep are white, but some are brown, black, or spotted.
Sheep are very dependent on their shepherds, which accounts for the close, even friendly, relationship between the sheep and the shepherd. You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.