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Border collies are very bright, but very apt to get into mischief if they do not have sheep to work on.
[Flirt] Arf! You've got me pegged, dr. bill. But we have other outlets: if sheep aren't available we'll try to herd toddlers, young children, or even short-statured adults! [/Flirt]
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I wonder when sheep dogs were first used. I don't remember their being mentioned in the Bible.
Job 30:1 (King James version): But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
Iliad, Book X: and sitting with their arms about them. as sheep dogs that watch their flocks
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Dear Keiva: You must have read both Bible and Iliad more extensively than I did. Of course for many years the dogs would have been principally a defense against predators. We had a Maremma guaranteed to keep predators away. The Border Collies struck me as regarding the sheep as potential food supply that they shared with us. A Border Collie "giving eye" to a sheep is very obviously no friend of the sheep. And I have read that in the UK where they originated, they are routinely destroyed at about age five or six, because they sneak out at night and kill somebody else's sheep. I think James Herriot has a story about this.
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You must have read both Bible and Iliad more extensively than I did. Must admit that I merely googled. Haven't yet looked for a searchable Code of Hammurabi!  Border Collie "giving eye" to a sheep is very obviously no friend of the sheep.On the contrary. The border collie, using "eye", works the sheep by threatening just enough to make them shy away in the desired direction, but not enough to stampede them. It's a very fine line, I understand. I've admittedly never watched a sheepdog trial (must remedy that), but I've seen it in action when the dog herded by kids, when they were small. I believe this "eye" technique is unique to border collies. Other herding breeds do their work, for example, by running at the sheep or cattle or by nipping at their heels. BTW, border collies are being used to frighten migratory geese away from golf courses. It's been found the only effective way to control serious problems, at some cousess, of (how to put this delicately?) grossly excessive goose-droppings.  And I have read that in the UK where they originated, they are routinely destroyed at about age five or six, because they sneak out at night and kill somebody else's sheep.[Flirt] A foul canard!  Your sources, sir?  [/Flirt] [keiva] Down, girl! dr. bill's one of the good guys! [/keiva]
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I regret to say, dear friends, that y'all are floundering about when there is a perfectly simple answer. I don't have it, since, alas, I am not a Hebrew scholar. What you quoted, Dr. Bill, is the classical English translation of a Hebrew psalm. To answer your question authoritatively, we need a Hebrew scholar to enlighten us on the Hebrew words for "rod" and "staff" in the original. Any scholars out there?
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I'm not sure there is any extant hebrew original. As I recall, the King James was a translation from the latin Vulgate, which in turn was a translation from the aramaic. I'll try to do a little checking, but on me, you shouldn't count.
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Pardon my saying it, Ken, but you are totally out to lunch. The King James Ver. (properly called the "Authorized Version") was the work of the most eminent divines of the day and they worked from all available originals, Hebrew and Aramaic for the Old Testament and Apochrypha, Greek and others for the New Testament, not from the Vulgate. The Vulgate was not from Aramaic sources; St. Jerome used basically the same sources as the later English translators, but his were better, being more than 1000 years more recent. Also, the Psalms are read and/or sung every week, in the original Hebrew, in synagogues worldwide; indeed, many are recited daily by the devout, so there is no problem finding the Hebrew original of Ps. 23. Of course, you have to know Hebrew to address Dr. Bill's question.
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Dear Keiva: We had Border Collies for about ten years, and I paid a lot of attention to them. My feeling is that they feel they have a contract to help the shepherd, whose judgement they frequently are tempted to doubt, but they still look on the sheep as prey being conserved for an eventual banquet. I still say that when they are "giving eye" they are saying under their breath "I'd chew the bejesus out of you if I could get away with it!" There was an article in Smithsonian a couple years ago about their being used to herd geese off turf which the geese want to eat, and into the pond, where there is nothing the geese want. So the geese get discouraged with being hurt, which would get the bleeding hearts up in arms. The geese are really getting to be a nuisance, and I thought it stupid that they were allowed in hundreds close to runways at Dulles. They could easily cause plane crash by getting into engine intake.
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No "pardon my saying so" needed, byb. I was tentative in my info (I should have so indicated more clearly), and you're well ahead of me on this one. Later edit: Mine certainly was a durn-fool comment, wasn't it? I tried a bit of googling throuh "talmud", without success. However, Flirt insists that I first google to demolish dr. bill's defamation.  As FDR said in his Fala speech, Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but [Flirt] does resent them. [S]he has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog." 
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Dear Keiva: Here is a quote about rogue Border Collies, which of course does not apply to Flirt. Border Collie site http://www.bcrescue.org/bcwarning.htmlRogue dogs however, are not uncommon, and in many European countries, Australia and New Zealand, where the dogs are often allowed to roam free, sheep and calf-killing Border Collies can pose occassional threats to livestock. Many people say that once a Border Collie has tasted blood, they can never be trusted again and normally, the dogs are summarily exterminated.
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