Jeremiah 5:27
in Jeremiah 5Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.
KJV
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
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This verse in Jeremiah 5
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Verse 27 and following) Therefore they have been magnified and enriched: they have become fat and grown thick, and have passed over my words wickedly: they have not judged the cause, the cause of the orphan, so they did not direct the judgment of the poor (or widow). Will I not visit them for these things, says the Lord: or will not my soul take vengeance upon a nation of this kind? If I were to list all the things that have been omitted in the Septuagint edition, it would be a long task.
This site's exposition
For among My people are wicked men
on Jeremiah 5:26-29
The charge turns to the traps set by wicked men: “Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit”. Their wealth rests on the predation the law forbids. Men grown fat have not taken up “the cause of the fatherless” or defended “the rights of the needy”.
This site's exposition
Like cages full of birds
Clarke takes the cage as a decoy cage, stocked with tame birds that lure wild ones into the snare. Gill reports that the Targum reads it as a pen for fattening fowl. The houses fill with deceit and their owners grow rich.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
As a cage is full of birds,.... Jarchi and Kimchi understand it of a place in which fowls, are brought up and fattened, what we call a "pen"; and, so the Targum renders it, a house or place of fattening. The word is rendered a "basket" in Amo 8:1 and may here design one in which birds taken in snares, or by hawking, were put. The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, render it, "a snare": which agrees with what goes before.
): " As a cage, or coop, is full of birds, and of food for them to fatten them for the table, so are their houses full of deceit, of wealth obtained by fraudulent practices or of arts and methods of defrauding.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
As a cage is full of birds - There is no doubt that the reference here is to a decoy or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney has rendered it; in these the fowlers put several tame birds, which when the wild ones see, they come and light on the cage, and fall into the snare.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּכְלוּב֙ | kikhluv | like a cage | H3619 → | |
| מָ֣לֵא | male' | full | H4392 → | 64 times |
| ע֔וֹף | of | bird[s] | H5775 → | 71 times |
| כֵּ֥ן | ken | so | H3651 → | 771 times |
| בָּתֵּיהֶ֖ם | bateihem | houses their | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| מְלֵאִ֣ים | meleim | [are] full | H4392 → | 64 times |
| מִרְמָ֑ה | mirmah | deceit | H4820 → | 39 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | there- | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| כֵּ֥ן | ken | -fore | H3651 → | 771 times |
| גָּדְל֖וּ | gadelu | they have become great | H1431 → | 117 times |
| וַֽיַּעֲשִֽׁירוּ׃ | vaiyaashiru | and they have gained riches | H6238 → |
כִּכְלוּב֙like a cage
kikhluvH3619 →
מָ֣לֵאfull
male'H4392 →64 times
ע֔וֹףbird[s]
ofH5775 →71 times
כֵּ֥ןso
kenH3651 →771 times
בָּתֵּיהֶ֖םhouses their
bateihemH1004 →2046 times
מְלֵאִ֣ים[are] full
meleimH4392 →64 times
מִרְמָ֑הdeceit
mirmahH4820 →39 times
עַל־there-
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
כֵּ֥ן-fore
kenH3651 →771 times
גָּדְל֖וּthey have become great
gadeluH1431 →117 times
וַֽיַּעֲשִֽׁירוּ׃and they have gained riches
vaiyaashiruH6238 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 9:6You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget…
- Jeremiah 13:10
These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this…
- Proverbs 1:24
Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,
- Romans 1:28
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- John 3:19–20
And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
- Hosea 4:6
Through
Micah 1:12For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 14:19
Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of…
- Micah 1:9
For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.
- Amos 3:6
If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
- Jeremiah 14:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.