Cage
“Something clasped together (a trap)”
Summary
A device for confining birds, used in Scripture both literally and as a symbol of deceit and spiritual corruption.
☩Ancient Bird Cages
The earliest cages were crude affairs of willows or pliable twigs, later made of pottery, and used to confine birds prized for their song or beauty, or to detain them for market. In Jeremiah's prophecy, the Hebrew word kelub (from 'to clasp together') refers to a trap with decoy birds used to catch other birds until the cage was full, rather than a coop or fattening place. The same article may be implied in Job's mention of 'playing with a bird.'
☩Symbolic Usage
Jeremiah compared the deceitful houses of the wealthy to a cage full of birds, stuffed with craftily-obtained wealth and luxury. In Revelation, fallen Babylon is described as 'a hold (or cage) of every unclean and hateful bird'—a symbol of spiritual corruption and demonic habitation. In this passage the Greek word phulake means a prison or restricted habitation rather than a literal cage.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Cage," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. II (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Cage," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Cage," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).