σφαγή

From the study of James 5:5

Range of meaning

Slaughter: killing animals for food or sacrifice, and by extension the killing of people in war or judgment. "Sheep for slaughter" (Acts 8:32; Rom 8:36, from Isa 53:7 and Ps 44:22).

Against the English

English versions agree on "slaughter". The difference is whether they keep "in" (most), add "as in" (KJV, from the later ὡς reading), or change it to "for" (NLT).

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 12:1–3 asks why the wicked prosper, then prays: "drag them off like sheep for slaughter, set them apart for the day of killing". The Greek Old Testament there reads "for the day of their slaughter". See also Jer 25:34, Isa 34:2–6 and Isa 30:25 ("in the day of great slaughter"). In 1 Enoch 94:7–9, a Jewish book of woes against the rich, the rich are told: "you have become ready for the day of slaughter, and the day of darkness, and the day of great judgment."

From the study of Romans 8:36

Range of meaning

Slaughter, butchery, killing. Used for slaughtering animals for food or sacrifice, and for massacre of people (BDAG).

Against the English

'Sheep for the slaughter' / 'to be slaughtered' is accurate. The risk lies in what modern readers bring to it (see drift).

How it drifted

Modern Christian ears tend to hear 'sheep to the slaughter' through the 'Lamb of God' and a calm sacrificial victim. The psalm's Hebrew word is ṭibḥâ, which means butchering, not zebaḥ (altar sacrifice). The picture is livestock at the butcher's, killed cheaply and in numbers.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 44:22 Hebrew ṣōʾn ṭibḥâ, 'sheep of slaughter'. Jeremiah 12:3 ('like sheep for slaughter') and Zechariah 11:4, 7 ('the flock doomed to slaughter', LXX τὰ πρόβατα τῆς σφαγῆς) picture a people abandoned to exploitation. Isaiah 53:7 LXX ('like a sheep led to slaughter') uses the same Greek words for the silent suffering servant, and Acts 8:32 quotes that line of Jesus.

From the study of Acts 8:32

Range of meaning

Slaughter: cutting the throat of an animal, whether for food or for sacrifice. By extension it means violent killing or a massacre of people.

Against the English

"Slaughter" is accurate. The common English idiom "like a lamb to the slaughter" now usually means going to doom naively, without knowing it. That is not the point of Isaiah's image.

How it drifted

The modern idiom comes from this verse, but it moved from "meek, not resisting" to "unsuspecting".

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint it renders Hebrew ṭevaḥ, "slaughter, butchering" (e.g. Prov 7:22, "like an ox to the slaughter"; Jer 11:19, "like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter", where Jeremiah does not know of the plot; Ps 44:22 [43:23], "sheep for slaughter", quoted in Rom 8:36).