Interesting similes in the Bible

INTERESTING SIMILES

IN THE BIBLE

(OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT)

·       The ox that does not know its owner

“The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”[1] 

·       Angry wild ass

“... a wild ass at home in the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.”[2]

·       Lusty stallion

“They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbour’s wife.”[3]

·       Like bears

“We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.”[4]

·       Like jackals

“For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches”[5]

·       Like a stubborn heifer

“Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?”[6]

·       Like a heated oven

“They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven, whose baker does not need to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.”[7]

·       Like a woman in labour

“Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counsellor perished, that pangs have seized you like a woman in labour?”[8]

·       Den of robbers

“Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?”[9]

·       Reckless prophets

“Ah, soiled, defiled, oppressing city! ... Its prophets are reckless, faithless persons; its priests have profaned what is sacred, they have done violence to the law.”[10]

Yusuf Ulucan

Translation : H. Neslihan Demiriz

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[1] Isaiah: 1 /3

[2] Jeremiah: 2 / 24

[3]Jeremiah: 5 / 8

[4] Isaiah: 59 / 11

[5] Micah: 1/8

[6] Hosea : 4 / 16

[7] Hosea : 7 /4

[8] Micah : 4 / 9

[9] Jeremiah : 7 /11

[10] Zephaniah: 3 / 1 – 4 (abridged).

P.S. There are also some simile examples in Qur’an. For instance, “people who don’t want to see or understand the truth” are described as “livestocks and even more astray” (A’raf (7): 179) and the aftermath of the Ebrehe army who attacked Kaaba is defined as “eaten straw”. On the other hand, the comparisons and similes in The Bible are really bizarre and inappropriate.