Hebrews 13:20 → Zechariah 13:7

Hebrews' closing benediction names "the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep" (Heb 13:20). This is a qualified echo, not a citation of Zechariah 13:7: Hebrews quotes no clause of Zechariah, and its "Shepherd of the sheep" language draws most directly on Isaiah 63:11 LXX (ho poimēn tōn probatōn — Moses "brought up out of the sea") and its "blood of the eternal covenant" on the covenant-blood composite of Exodus 24:8 / Zechariah 9:11 / Jeremiah 31:31 (see the sibling IP Heb 13:20 → Jer 31:31). What binds it to Zechariah 13:7 is the shepherd-motif reversal: where Zechariah's sword strikes the Shepherd so the sheep are scattered (13:7), Hebrews declares that same struck Shepherd "brought back from the dead" — the striking answered by the rising, the scattering reversed into the gathering. Zechariah 13:7 is the wounding; Hebrews 13:20 is the vindication. Held honestly as the network's resurrection-turn — the far-side completion of the smitten-Shepherd trajectory (Ezek 34 promise → Zech 11 rejection → Zech 13:7 striking → Heb 13:20 raising → Rev 7:17 the Lamb who shepherds) — rather than as a direct reception of Zechariah 13:7. The telos is comfort and worship: the Shepherd struck for the scattered flock did not stay struck; because the covenant that raised Him is eternal, He cannot be struck again, and the sheep once scattered are gathered to Him forever.