A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
The lion shall lie down with the lamb
Paraphrase
Isaiah 11:6 pairs a wolf with a lamb, a leopard with a kid, and a calf with a young lion; it does not pair a lion with a lamb.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
Isaiah 11:6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Compare the evidence
This later Isaiah picture puts wolf and lamb together again and says the lion eats straw, which helps explain a blended memory.
Isaiah 65:25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
The next verse continues the peaceable-animal scene with a cow and bear and their young, confirming that this is a sequence of images.
Isaiah 11:7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
What the context adds
Isaiah 11:6 gives a careful list: wolf with lamb, leopard with kid, and calf, young lion, and fatling together, led by a little child. Isaiah 65:25 pairs the wolf and lamb once more and separately mentions the lion. The popular “lion and lamb” line compresses those pictures into one pair that neither verse states. The scene belongs to a longer poem about a ruler from Jesse’s line and a world of justice and peace. Seeing the actual animals is a small act of attention that opens the larger poem rather than diminishing its beauty.
A question to carry forward
What does Isaiah place around the animal picture before you turn it into a single peaceful pair?
Keep reading
Read Isaiah 11:1–9 and list the actual animal pairs before drawing a conclusion.
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