“Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 5:29 Mean?
"Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it." The invading army is compared to lions — roaring, seizing prey, carrying it away with nobody able to rescue. The lion imagery combines sound (roaring), action (seizing), and finality (no deliverance). The predator has its prey and nothing can intervene.
The escalating description — lion, young lions, roaring and seizing — builds intensity: first the general roar (like a lion), then the specific energy (like YOUNG lions — full of strength and aggression), then the action (roar AND seize AND carry away). Each stage is worse. The roaring announces. The seizing captures. The carrying away finalizes.
The "none shall deliver it" (ve'ein matzil — and there is no rescuer/deliverer) is the verse's most devastating phrase: the prey is taken and NO ONE can save it. Not the army. Not the allies. Not God (because God is the one who summoned the lion-army). The absence of a deliverer means the judgment is final.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What has been carried away from your life — and was it loss or divine judgment?
- 2.How does the lion-roar escalating to young-lion-aggression describe the progression of consequences?
- 3.What does 'none shall deliver' teach about the finality of some divine judgments?
- 4.How do you respond when God is the one who summoned the 'lion' — when the predator is His instrument?
Devotional
They roar like lions. They seize like young lions. They carry away the prey — and nobody can rescue it. The invading army is a predator: the roar announces the attack, the seizing captures the victim, the carrying away finalizes the loss. And nobody can deliver.
The lion imagery builds in intensity: first a lion's roar — the sound that freezes prey with terror. Then young lions — not old, experienced, cautious predators but YOUNG ones: aggressive, energetic, fueled by the strength of their prime. Then the roaring AND the seizing AND the carrying away — three actions in rapid succession. The prey goes from hearing the roar to being carried off in moments.
The 'none shall deliver' is the finality that makes the image complete: when a lion carries away prey, the prey is gone. No rescue party arrives. No intervention is possible. The predator has won and the victim is carried to a place from which there is no return. The 'none' includes every potential rescuer — allies, armies, strategies. None of them can deliver.
Isaiah's point is that this lion-army is GOD'S instrument: the roaring that terrifies Judah is God's roaring through a foreign army. The seizing that captures is God's judgment enacted through military force. The 'none shall deliver' means God Himself has determined that this judgment will not be interrupted. The prey is taken because the Predator-God has decided.
What has God allowed to be carried away from your life — and is there a difference between loss and judgment?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Their roaring shall be like a lion,.... When engaged in war, just seizing on their prey. The phrase denotes their…
Their roaring ... - Their battle cry, or their shout as they enter into an engagement. Such a “shout,” or cry, was…
Here are, I. Sins described which will bring judgments upon a people: and this perhaps is not only a charge drawn up…
Their roaring Or, he has a roar like that of a lioness, he roars like young lions and growls seizing the prey, &c. Two…
Cross References
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