What Does “Victim” Mean in the Bible?
In the Bible, the animal that was offered to God in sacrifice.
A detail
- Careful: it does not mean someone who suffers harm, as it does today.
Where it appears in the Bible
Genesis 22:7-8; 1 Samuel 15:22
What the Bible says
Genesis 22:7-8
7Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust? 8And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together.
1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Dictionary.com, “victim”