What Does Ezekiel 19:3 Mean in the King James?
And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The cub is raised into a predator, learns to tear, and turns human beings into prey.
THE MEANING
A young lion moves from being brought up, to becoming a predator, to learning the hunt, and finally to consuming human beings. The line leaves no distance between the learned skill and its cost: people are what it devours.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Predatory violence is not depicted as fully formed at birth: the cub is raised, becomes a lion, and learns to hunt.
THE ROOT
לִטְרֹף טֶרֶף
liṭrōp ṭereph
GROWS FROM
טרף
ṭ-r-p
To tear or rend; the related noun means prey or torn food.
“prey / to catch” in this verse is liṭrōp ṭereph. The verse pairs the infinitive “to tear” with the noun “prey” from the same root, so the hunt is more than a catch: it is tearing another living body for food. Hebrew echoes the act in the thing seized.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāraph: To tear or rend; to seize as prey.
טָרַף
This is the action encoded in the lion’s hunting.
ṭereph: Prey; torn food.
טֶרֶף
The same root names what is hunted, binding pursuit to consumption.
וַיִּלְמַד
wayyilmad
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
To learn or be trained; in another verb form, to teach.
“learned” in this verse is wayyilmad. This root spans learning and teaching. The verse locates the lion’s lethal competence in formation: it learns the hunt before it devours people.
ALSO GROWS
limmēd: To teach or instruct.
לִמֵּד
This form shows that the same root family also names imparting what another learns.
limmûd: One who is trained or instructed.
לִמּוּד
This branch makes the connection between learning and being formed explicit.
THE PATTERN
The lion image makes destructive power visible as a force that stalks, seizes, and devours people.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.THE THREAD
And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.The same root טרף (ṭ-r-p, “tear apart”) underlies Ezekiel’s “to tear prey” and Genesis’s “rent in pieces.” Here the lion eats people; there, the report of a beast eating Joseph turns a person into torn flesh, making the violence in both scenes concrete.
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