Jeremiah 5:5

they know As experts they have leisure to study the Law, and to learn therefrom the will of God.

broken the yoke, and burst the bands of the Law and of obedience. The bands are the fastenings of the yoke upon the neck of the beasts that bear it.

For the phrase cp. Jeremiah 2:20. As oxen which have broken loose, and are straying, so have the rebellious leaders of the people cast off obedience and service.

This verse suggested images to Dante:

"A lion's aspect, which appeared to me,

He seemed as if against me he were coming

With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,

So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;

And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings

Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,

And many folk has caused to live forlorn!"

Inferno, Canto I. ll. 45 51. Longfellow's Trans.