“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.
- BSB 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 bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish — vanish like smoke.
- Ezek 39:18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
- Ps 44:22Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.
- Isa 34:6Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
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 51:40 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.