They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.
Parallel translations
- WEB They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions’ cubs.
- KJV They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
- NKJV They shall roar together like lions, They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
- NASB “They will roar together like young lions, They will growl like lions’ cubs.
- NLT Her people will roar together like strong lions. They will growl like lion cubs.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Babylonians roar and growl together like young lions. Their fierce, predatory strength is described just before God brings it down.
Overview
The lion imagery captures Babylon's ferocity and appetite as a devouring power. Yet the picture is set up only to be reversed in the next verses, where God turns their feasting into deadly drunkenness. The proud roar of the predator is no match for the Lord, whose judgment silences even the mightiest, pointing to the supremacy of Christ the true Lion of Judah.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 2:15The young lions have roared at him; they have growled with a loud voice. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.
- Nah 2:11–13Where is the lions’ lair or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs, with nothing to frighten them away?
- Job 4:10–11The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
- Ps 58:6O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
- Ps 34:10Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- Isa 35:9No lion will be there, and no vicious beast will go up on it. Such will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk upon it.
- Judg 16:20Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
- Zech 11:3Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 51:38 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.