Bible Strands
Ezekiel 22:25
The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel delivers this oracle to Jerusalem, personified as a defiled city, during a declared period of divine indignation. He addresses the political and religious leadership just before cataloging their specific failures in law and worship.
The words — The Hebrew term קֶ֤שֶׁר (ke.sher) denotes a plotted conspiracy, while שׁוֹאֵ֖ג (sho.'eg) describes a lion actively roaring. These terms establish the princes' actions as both coordinated and violently predatory.
The thread — The concept of a predatory conspiracy surfaces in Jeremiah 11:9 regarding Judah's residents and in Hosea 6:9 where priests are compared to ambushers. Both passages connect elite collusion with direct harm to the vulnerable.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that leaders devour people, seize valuables, and multiply widows. Readers must account for how those designated to protect the community actively orchestrate its economic and social ruin.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
Cross-references
- Hosea 6:9 Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.
- Jeremiah 2:34 Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
- Jeremiah 11:9 And the LORD told me, “There is a conspiracy among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 13:19 You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.
- 1 Kings 22:11 Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’”
- 1 Kings 22:23 So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”
- Isaiah 56:11 Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:
- Jeremiah 5:30 A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.
- Jeremiah 6:13 “For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.
- Jeremiah 15:8 I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.