I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
Parallel translations
- WEB “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
- KJV I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
- NKJV “I will bring them down Like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams with male goats.
- NASB “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats.
- NLT “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.
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
God will bring the Babylonians down like lambs, rams, and goats to the slaughter. The fierce lions of Babylon become helpless animals led to death.
Overview
In a fitting reversal, the predators of verse 38 are now the prey, led docilely to slaughter. The imagery stresses both the certainty and the helplessness of Babylon under judgment. The contrast of slaughtered lambs points indirectly to the gospel, where the true Lamb, Christ, was willingly slain to deliver His people from judgment they deserved.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Jer 50:27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
- Ezek 39:18You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls—all the fattened animals of Bashan.
- Ps 44:22Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
- Isa 34:6The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 51:40 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.