ירמיהו, פרק נ׳, פסוק י״ז

The Israelites are compared to a defenseless sheep that has wandered away from its flock, lost in an open field and entirely vulnerable to cruel predators [מצודת דוד, מצודת ציון, אברבנאל]. This vivid imagery captures the tragic, two-stage process of the nation's destruction and exile, as foreign empires slowly consumed them until nothing remained.

The lions in this metaphor represent the powerful foreign kings who attacked the flock. They chased the solitary sheep from its natural home, violently pushing the Israelites out and exiling them from their land [רד״ק, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The act of driving the sheep away highlights this forceful distancing [מצודת ציון]. The prophet envisions this destruction unfolding in two distinct phases, carried out by two different lions.

The primary approach among commentators is that the first lion to attack and devour the flesh of the sheep is the king of Assyria. This initial strike represents the exile of the Ten Tribes. After this attack, the nation was stripped down to mere bones, meaning that only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were left surviving in their kingdom.

The second lion to strike is the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. While the first lion ate the flesh, Nebuchadnezzar's role was to crack, crush, and break the remaining bones. He consumed the meager leftovers spared by the king of Assyria, uprooting the nation entirely [רש״י, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. By exiling Judah and Benjamin and destroying Jerusalem, he ensured that absolutely nothing of the original sheep remained [רד״ק, מצודת דוד]. In crushing these bare bones, the second lion brought the brutal process of destruction to its final conclusion [אברבנאל, מלבי״ם].