Bible Strands
Jeremiah 5:8
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to Judah, questioning why He should continue to forgive a nation that has abandoned Him for idols and pursued sexual immorality.
The words — מְיֻזָּנִ֖ים (me.yu.za.Nim) means well fed, and מַשְׁכִּ֣ים (mash.Kim) means lustful, both describing the metaphorical stallions.
The thread — Jeremiah 13:27 repeats the imagery of lustful neighings to condemn Israel’s idolatry and prostitution. Deuteronomy 5:18 establishes the covenant boundary against adultery that the metaphor violates.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader acknowledge that idolatry and sexual sin are covenant violations that forfeit divine patience. It requires immediate repentance before judgment becomes inevitable.
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
They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 13:27 Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”
- Deuteronomy 5:18 You shall not commit adultery.
- 2 Samuel 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Ezekiel 22:11 One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
- Genesis 39:9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”
- Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
- Exodus 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
- Deuteronomy 5:21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
- Job 31:9 If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,
- Jeremiah 29:23 For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”