CAGE

An enclosure used for confining birds or other animals. (Jer. 5:27; compare Amos 8:2, where the same Hebrew word, K^eluvʹ, is rendered “basket.”) The prophet Ezekiel evidently alluded to King Jehoiachin of Judah under the figure of a lion that was put in a cage (Heb., su·gharʹ) and brought to the king of Babylon. (Ezek. 19:9; compare 2 Kings 24:12-15.) As illustrated on Assyrian bas-reliefs, lions were caged and then released for the hunt. The wooden cages had stout, wide horizontal bars and were topped by a smaller barred cabin, in which stood the man that raised the door to release the lion.