Fatling

Fatling refers to a young, fattened animal — typically a calf, sheep, or goat — set apart and fed specifically to be slaughtered for sacrifice or feasting. The Hebrew term (meri') and related words emphasize the animal's specially nourished condition. Fatlings appear in contexts of celebration (2 Samuel 6:13), royal feasts, and temple sacrifice.

The term carries eschatological significance in Isaiah's vision of the coming messianic age, where the wolf and the lamb lie together and "the fatling" dwells with the lion (Isaiah 11:6) — an image of cosmic peace in which the natural order of predation is overturned. Ezekiel 39:18 uses fatlings in an inverted feast of judgment. In Jesus's parable of the prodigal son, the father calls for the "fatted calf" to be killed at his son's return (Luke 15:23), and in the parable of the great banquet the king prepares his fatlings ("oxen and fatlings," Matthew 22:4) for the feast. The fatling thus serves as a marker of the highest celebration and most generous hospitality.