Jeremiah 5:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 5:6
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
a copse of bushes · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
slay
הִכָּ֨םhi.Kam
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
wolf
זְאֵ֤בze.'Ev
H2061
a wolf · noun, common masculine singular construct
evenings
עֲרָבוֹת֙a.ra.Vot
H6160
a desert · noun, common feminine plural absolute
spoil
יְשָׁדְדֵ֔םye.sha.de.Dem
H7703
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
leopard
נָמֵ֤רna.Mer
H5246
a leopard (from its stripes) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
watch
שֹׁקֵד֙sho.Ked
H8245
to be alert · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
cities
עָ֣רֵיהֶ֔ם'a.rei.Hem
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
out
הַיּוֹצֵ֥אhai.yo.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
shall
הֵנָּהhênnâh
H2007
themselves (often used emphatic for the copula
pieces
יִטָּרֵ֑ףyi.ta.Ref
H2963
to pluck off or pull to pieces · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
transgressions
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶ֔םpish.'ei.Hem
H6588
a revolt (national · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
many
רַבּוּ֙ra.Bu
H7231
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
backslidings
מְשׁוּבוֹתֵיהֶֽםme.shu.vo.tei.hem
H4878
apostasy · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
increased
עָצְמ֖וּ'a.tze.Mu
H6105
to bind fast · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land deso…
Habakkuk 1:8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, an…
Ezekiel 22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
Numbers 32:14 And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel.
Ezra 9:6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our tresp…
Ezra 10:10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.
Psalms 104:20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 5:1-9
Here is, I. A challenge to produce any one right honest man, or at least any considerable number of such, in Jerusalem, Jer 5:1. Jerusalem had become like the old world, in which all flesh had corrupted their way. There were some perhaps who flattered themselves with hopes that there were yet many good men in Jerusalem, who would stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God; and there might be others who boasted of its being the holy city and thought that this would save it. But God bids them search the town, and intimates that they should scarcely find a man in it who executed judgment and made conscience of what he said and did: "Look in the streets, where they make their appearance and…
lion . . . wolf . . . leopard--the strongest, the most ravenous, and the swiftest, respectively, of beasts: illustrating the formidable character of the Babylonians.
of the evenings--Others not so well translate, of the deserts. The plural means that it goes forth every evening to seek its prey (Psa 104:20; Hab 1:8; Zep 3:3).
leopard . . . watch . . . cities-- (Hos 13:7). It shall lie in wait about their cities.
John Gill on Jeremiah 5:6
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them,.... Meaning King Nebuchadnezzar out of Babylon, a place full of people, and so comparable to a forest, as the king is to a lion, for his strength, fierceness, and cruelty; and who came from thence, besieged and took Jerusalem; and who not only slew their young men with the sword, but also the king's sons, and the princes and nobles of Judah, 2 Chronicles 36:17.
and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them; which, having sought for its prey all the day, or not daring to go out for any, is hungry, raging and furious, and tears and destroys whatever it meets with; see Zephaniah 3:3, so the Targum and Kimchi understand it of such a wolf; but Ja…
(Verse 6) And behold, these men have broken the yoke together: they have broken the bonds, therefore the lion from the forest has struck them, the wolf has laid waste to them in the evening, the vigilant leopard is over their cities; everyone who goes out from them will be captured. Because their transgressions have multiplied, their apostasies have become strengthened. Those whom I thought were teachers, have been found to be worse than the disciples, and the greater authority there is in the rich, the greater the insolence of sins. For they have broken the yoke of the Law, as the Apostle says: 'Now therefore, why do you tempt God by imposing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe to be saved, even as they:' (Acts 15:10-11). And they broke the bonds of God's precepts, and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second Psalm: 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us' (Psalm 2:3). Therefore, because they did these things, a lion from the forest struck them, namely the kingdom of Babylon; a wolf ravaged them at evening, signifying the Medes and Persians. For this reason, in the vision of Daniel, a bear is placed, with three rows of teeth in its mouth (Daniel 7): a watchful leopard over their cities, foreshadowing the attack of Alexander, and a swift attack from the West to India. It is called a leopard due to its variety and because it fought against the Medes and Persians with many subject nations. And four, he said, were the heads on the beast, and power was given to it. And because he does not prophesy of the future, but of the past, as if weaving a story about things that are about to happen soon, he is silent about the Roman empire, about which perhaps it is said: Everyone who goes out from them will be captured. And he gives reasons why they have suffered these things: Because their transgressions have multiplied, and they have persisted in their disobedience. Hence it is said: And their aversions have been strengthened. That which we have set forth at the beginning, the Hebrew word Soced, which means 'vigilance', is now revealed in its proper place: for where we have said 'pardus vigilans', it is written in Hebrew Nemer Soced. According to typology, those who are considered great in the Church, because they…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Evening — The period following sunset with which the Jewish day began (Gen. 1:5; Mark 13:35). The Hebrews reckoned two evenings of each day, as appears from Ex. 16:12: 30:8; 12:6 (marg.); Lev. 23:5 (marg.…
Forest — Heb. ya’ar, meaning a dense wood, from its luxuriance. Thus all the great primeval forests of Syria (Eccl. 2:6; Isa. 44:14; Jer. 5:6; Micah 5:8). The most extensive was the trans-Jordanic forest of…
Leopard — (Heb. namer, so called because spotted, Cant. 4:8), was that great spotted feline which anciently infested the mountains of Syria, more appropriately called a panther (Felis pardus). Its fierceness…
Lions — The most powerful of all carnivorous animals. Although not now found in Palestine, they must have been in ancient times very numerous there. They had their lairs in the forests (Jer. 5:6; 12:8; Amos…
Shepherd — A word naturally of frequent occurence in Scripture. Sometimes the word “pastor” is used instead (Jer. 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 12:10; 17:16). This word is used figuratively to represent the relation of…
Wolf — Heb. zeeb, frequently referred to in Scripture as an emblem of treachery and cruelty. Jacob’s prophecy, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf” (Gen. 49:27), represents the warlike character of that tribe…
Backsliding · Guilt and consequences of — Guilt and consequences of
Evening, The · Wild beasts come forth in — Wild beasts come forth in
Forests · Infested by wild beasts — Infested by wild beasts
Leopard · Fierceness of — Fierceness of
Lion · .Of a ruler’s anger — .Of a ruler’s anger
Jeremiah 5:6
6. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
6. Propterea percussit eos leo e sylva; lupus solitudinum (alii per rvvt intelligunt vesperas, quia deducunt ab rv quod significat vesperum; ita vertunt, lupus vesperinus) vastavit eos; pardus (alii vertunt, pantheram) vigilans super urbes eorum; quisquis egredietur, discerpet (vel, lacerabit;) quoniam multiplices sunt iniquitates eorum, auctae sunt defectiones ceorum.
Here, at length, God shews that he wa…
The Causes which Called Down the Judgment Pronounced: The Total Corruption of the People. - Chr. B. Mich. has excellently summed up thus the contents of this chapter: Deus judicia sua, quae cap. IV praedixerat, justificat ostendens, se quamvis invitum, tamen non aliter posse quam punire Judaeos propter praefractam ipsorum malitiam. The train of thought in this chapter is the following: God would pardon if there were to be found in Jerusalem but one who practised righteousness and strove to keep good faith; but high and low have forsaken God and His law, and serve the false gods. This the Lord must punish (Jer 5:1-9). Judah, like Israel, disowns the Lord, and despises the words of His prophet…
The Babylonians would attack like a lion, a wolf, and a leopard. These ferocious beasts were capable of destroying human life. The people’s rebellion and sins were very serious to the Lord (4:7; 30:14-15; Ps 104:20; Ezek 22:27; Hos 13:7; Hab 1:8; Zeph 3:3).
Rashi on Jeremiah 5:6
a lion The kingdom of Babylon.
a wolf The kingdom of Media.
a leopard The kingdom of Greece.
shall be torn to pieces by Edom.
a wolf of the deserts Heb. ערבות, an expression of (supra 2:6) ערבה ושוחה “plains and pits,” a wolf of the desert.
hastens Heb. שקד. Menahem (p. 180) associates it with an expression of watching. Comp. (Prov. 8:34) “To watch (לשקוד) My doors daily.” And Jonathan rendered it as an expression of lying in wait.
Wolf, The · Particularly fierce in the evening when it seeks its prey — Particularly fierce in the evening when it seeks its prey
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
