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Journey of a Passage

Jeremiah 11:18–20

"Like a lamb brought to the slaughter": the first confession

"But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living." The Hebrew is kebes alluf, "a tame (docile) lamb": the KJV's "or an ox" takes alluf as a second animal. The Greek (in Giguet's French) has "an innocent lamb led to sacrifice," and its plotters say "let us put wood into his bread," reading the Hebrew "tree in its bread" (ets be-lachmo) literally; Jerome followed the same sense ("mittamus lignum in panem ejus"). Christian readers from the second century on heard Christ in this verse beside Isaiah 53:7; in Jeremiah, the lamb is the prophet himself, unaware of a plot by his own townsmen of Anathoth (11:21).

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The words as first spoken or writtenlate 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. 4QJer-a (4Q70), Qumran Cave 4c. 200 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
  4. Isaiah 53:7 (Masoretic Text)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. late 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The words as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives, and Jeremiah circulated in at least two ancient Hebrew editions: a shorter one behind the Old Greek and the longer one preserved as the Masoretic Text. The oldest copies are six fragmentary Qumran manuscripts (2QJer, 4QJer-a to 4QJer-e), from about 200 BC to the 1st century AD.

  2. c. 200 BC (palaeography; reported)

    4QJer-a (4Q70), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XV not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 11:18–20. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. Only a few words of v. 19 survive (the end, "and I did not know"), in agreement with the Masoretic Text; the image of the lamb is restored.

  3. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Tu autem, Domine, demonstrasti mihi, et cognovi: tunc ostendisti mihi studia eorum. Et ego quasi agnus mansuetus, qui portatur ad victimam: et non cognovi quia cogitaverunt super me consilia, dicentes: Mittamus lignum in panem ejus, et eradamus eum de terra viventium, et nomen ejus non memoretur amplius. Tu autem, Domine Sabaoth, qui judicas juste, et probas renes et corda, videam ultionem tuam ex eis: tibi enim revelavi causam meam.

    Latin numbering: Jeremiah 11:18–20. Jerome translated Jeremiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וַֽיהוָ֥ה הֽוֹדִיעַ֖נִי וָֽאֵדָ֑עָה אָ֖ז הִרְאִיתַ֥נִי מַעַלְלֵיהֶֽם׃ וַאֲנִ֕י כְּכֶ֥בֶשׂ אַלּ֖וּף יוּבַ֣ל לִטְב֑וֹחַ וְלֹֽא־יָדַ֜עְתִּי כִּֽי־עָלַ֣י ׀ חָשְׁב֣וּ מַחֲשָׁב֗וֹת נַשְׁחִ֨יתָה עֵ֤ץ בְּלַחְמוֹ֙ וְנִכְרְתֶ֙נּוּ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ חַיִּ֔ים וּשְׁמ֖וֹ לֹֽא־יִזָּכֵ֥ר עֽוֹד׃ וַֽיהוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ שֹׁפֵ֣ט צֶ֔דֶק בֹּחֵ֥ן כְּלָי֖וֹת וָלֵ֑ב אֶרְאֶ֤ה נִקְמָֽתְךָ֙ מֵהֶ֔ם כִּ֥י אֵלֶ֖יךָ גִּלִּ֥יתִי אֶת־רִיבִֽי׃

    But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had plotted against me: Let us destroy the tree with its sap (or: put wood in his bread), and cut him off from the land of the living (v. 19)

    Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 11:18–20.

  5. AD 1008

    Isaiah 53:7 (Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    נִגַּ֨שׂ וְה֣וּא נַעֲנֶה֮ וְלֹ֣א יִפְתַּח־פִּיו֒ כַּשֶּׂה֙ לַטֶּ֣בַח יוּבָ֔ל וּכְרָחֵ֕ל לִפְנֵ֥י גֹזְזֶ֖יהָ נֶאֱלָ֑מָה וְלֹ֥א יִפְתַּ֖ח פִּֽיו׃

    Like a lamb led to the slaughter

    A shared image, with different Hebrew words for "lamb."

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings. But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

  7. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Seigneur, instruisez-moi, et je saurai. Et alors j’ai vu leurs machinations contre moi. Mais moi, comme un agneau innocent conduit au sacrifice, je ne remarquais rien. Ils avaient conçu mêlons contre moi un mauvais dessein, disant: Allons, du bois à son pain, effaçons-le de la terre des vivants, nul ne se souvienne de son nom. Seigneur, qui jugez selon la justice, qui sondez les reins et les cœurs, puissé-je voir la vengeance que vous tirerez d’eux; car je vous ai exposé ma cause.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Jeremiah 11:18–20. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only), in the Greek book's own order and verse numbering; a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Jeremiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: a lexical and interpretive question (kebes alluf); a Greek and Latin reading of ets be-lachmo ("wood in his bread") that differs from the KJV's emendation-like "tree with the fruit thereof"; later Christian reception.

Library check: in Giguet's file one word ("mêlons," "let us mix") has been displaced earlier in the sentence. This is a digitization error in the library's French file, not a variant in the Greek (site D register JE-D03).

Isaiah 53:7 also uses "lamb… brought to the slaughter" (seh la-tevach). The two passages share an image; the site does not assume that one borrows from the other.

Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 72, mid-2nd century) cites 11:19 as a prophecy of Christ and claims it had been cut from some Jewish copies, while admitting it was still in others. No known Hebrew or Greek manuscript lacks the verse (reported; C check).

What the evidence shows

  • What the text saysThe Hebrew of 11:19 reads kebes alluf, "a tame lamb."
  • Conflicts with current evidenceThe KJV's "or an ox" is the only possible reading. Alluf can mean tame/docile or (as a noun) ox or chief; most modern translations read "a gentle lamb."
  • What the text saysJeremiah 11:19 speaks of the prophet himself. The context (11:18, 21–23) names his own experience.
  • Matter of faithJeremiah 11:19 predicts Christ. An early and enduring Christian reading; not the passage's own claim.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Jeremiah 11: Like a Lamb Brought to the Slaughter →"Hear ye the words of this covenant… Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace" (11:1–4). Jeremiah answers, "So be it (amen), O LORD" (v. 5), and is sent to proclaim the covenant in Judah's towns (vv. 6–8). "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah": they have gone back to their fathers' sins, as many gods as towns, as many altars to Baal as Jerusalem's streets (vv. 9–13). Do not pray for this people (v. 14). The LORD called you "a green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit"; now he sets it on fire (vv. 15–17). Then the first of Jeremiah's personal poems: "I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me" (vv. 18–20). The plotters are the men of Anathoth, his own town: "Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand" (vv. 21–23).
    • Investigation: Jeremiah's Confessions →Scattered through chapters 11–20 are poems in which Jeremiah speaks not to the people for God but to God about himself. Since the 19th century scholars have called them his "confessions," borrowing Augustine's word for an autobiography addressed to God. They are prayers of a persecuted man: he asks for vengeance, accuses God of failing him like a dry stream, says God enticed and overpowered him, and curses the day he was born. Some get an answer from God; the last gets none. This investigation studies each poem on its own, compares them with Job and the lament psalms, and separates real verbal parallels from claims that one text borrowed from another.