Lamb

A common source of clothing and meat, this animal was given heightened significance by its place in the Jewish sacrificial system and was used figuratively of Jesus Christ.

The economic importance of lambs

As food

2 Samuel 12:4 See also Deuteronomy 28:4; Amos 6:4

Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”

As a means of exchange

Genesis 30:32 See also 2 Kings 3:4

Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.

The sacrificial significance of lambs

Their general use

Genesis 22:7 See also Exodus 29:38; Leviticus 3:7, Leviticus 14:12, Leviticus 14:24; 1 Samuel 7:9

Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

The Passover lamb

Exodus 12:21 See also Exodus 12:3, Exodus 12:7; 2 Chronicles 30:15–17; Ezra 6:20; Luke 22:7

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.

The best had to be chosen

Numbers 6:14 See also Leviticus 4:32, Leviticus 23:12; Numbers 28:3–4, Numbers 28:11; Ezekiel 46:4

and he is to present an offering to the LORD of an unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, an unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, and an unblemished ram as a peace offering —

They were costly

Leviticus 12:8 See also Exodus 34:20

But if she cannot afford a lamb, she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Then the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”

The figurative use of lambs

In general

Psalm 114:4; Luke 10:3 See also Isaiah 40:11, Isaiah 65:25; Jeremiah 11:19; John 21:15

the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Describing Jesus Christ and his work

John 1:36; 1 Peter 1:18–19 See also Acts 8:32; Isaiah 53:7; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Revelation 5:12, Revelation 22:3

When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.