Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Prepositional Phrase 32. The prepositional
phrase today is like a lamb to the slaughter. Okay. Let's take a look at the
note here. This can also be rephrased as as lambs to the slaughter.
You know, like kind of in a plural sense. Or down here sometimes. Instead of lamb
we might say sheep. Like a sheep to the slaughter too. So it could be said all of
those ways. All right. Let's continue. If a person goes to a place like a lamb to
the slaughter, he or she will go quietly without resistance. So without fighting,
Obediently, you know, just following. Doing what they're told.
Following and not realizing the danger or unpleasantness that lay ahead of them. .
So that's the way we usually use it. All right. Let's continue. The origin of
this phrase comes from the Bible and is used a few times throughout it. The first
one is from Isiah 53:7. Here is the quote. Okay. And they say "All of us"
meaning like all people in general. "Have gone astray." Have gone in the wrong direction.
"Each of us has turned to his own way. " Well just you know, doing your own thing
which may not always be the right thing. But " The Lord has caused the inequity. Inequity
is like sins or evil. " Of us all to fall on him. "
Meaning that he will pay for it. "He was oppressed" Meaning held down. "And
afflicted" So they're actually talking about you know, Jesus when he was being
led to be you know, crucified. " Yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is
led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before his Shearer's " You know,
the shearers they're the ones that cut both the lamb's wool basically. So he did not
open his mouth. Okay. So let's take a look at this.
Okay. Now the Bible passage showed Jesus willingly sacrificed his life to save
humanity. So he did know what he was facing. He did know where he was going. He
did know that he would feel pain , but when we use it about people today,
usually we mean that they are kind of ignorant or they're naive and they're
being led into a bad situation. So that's the way the phrase is used today in the
case of Jesus unfortunately for him he knew the pain that he was going to go
through. So that's a different, slightly different situation there. Well let's
continue. Yeah. So however most of the time we hear now it is to express one
unknowingly, naively or ignorantly. So not being aware or just being too naive
could be led into a bad situation that could be a catastrophe or end one's
life. You know lead to ones death. Okay. So here's a couple of examples we have you
Example number one. During world war two many Nazis lead Jews to gas chambers to
exterminate them. And the Jews followed like a lamb to the slaughter or you
could say well as lambs to the slaughter you could say it that way as well. Okay.
And number two. Rather than me give the example , Im going to give you a George
Washington quote I'll let him tell you. So this is from George Washington "if
freedom of speech is taken away is taken away then dumb and silent . " You know not
being able to speak or say anything. " We may be led like sheep to the slaughter. "
So George Washington himself kind of use this phrase as well . Just to warn us to
be careful. Never let them take freedom of speech away from you. Okay. And you
know I sometimes kind of heard it used like possibly you know to do with the
stock market too If I don't know maybe on TV a lot of people told you who's good
buying opportunities and stuff but a lot of insiders knew and they purposely had
a collapse of the stock market. Maybe where the
average person was set up. You know, we were we will let into it. We will fool we
were fooled. We were given bad advice and we could be lead like sheep to the slaughter well,
you know, financially at least. Okay Anyway,
I hope you got it. I hope it was clear I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.