Sheep-fold

A sheep-fold was a strong fenced enclosure, typically built of stone walls with thorn bushes laid along the top, designed to protect flocks from predators and thieves during the night. In the ancient Near East, several shepherds might share a single communal fold, each bringing their flocks in at nightfall and removing them by name in the morning with the porter's assistance. The fold had a single gate through which the shepherd entered legitimately.

Jesus uses the imagery of the sheepfold extensively in John 10:1–16, drawing a sharp contrast between the true shepherd, who enters by the door and calls his own sheep by name, and the thief, who climbs in by another way to steal and destroy. The sheep know the shepherd's voice and follow him, a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and his disciples. The image also appears in the Old Testament: David was called from following the sheep-folds to shepherd Israel (Psalm 78:70–71; 2 Samuel 7:8), and the wilderness encampments of the Transjordanian tribes included sheepfolds as permanent features of their pastoral settlements (Numbers 32:24).