Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:40
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God declares through Jeremiah that Babylon will be brought down after its leaders fall into eternal sleep from a divinely orchestrated feast.
The words — The Hebrew אֽוֹרִידֵ֖ם ('o.riDe/m) translates as "I will bring down," directly modifying the simile כְּכָרִים (ke./kha.Rim) "like lambs" sent לִטְב֑וֹחַ (li/t.Vo.ach) "to slaughter."
The thread — The text parallels Jeremiah 50:27's command to send young bulls to the slaughter and Psalms 44:22's description of the faithful as sheep counted for slaughter.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment reduces proud nations to defenseless livestock, leaving no room for self-preservation or escape.
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
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 50:27 Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.
- Psalms 37:20 But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
- Psalms 44:22 Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
- Isaiah 34:6 The 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.
- Ezekiel 39:18 You 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.