כְּפִיר

Judges 14:5 כְּפִ֣יר a young lion of

Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him,

Nehemiah 6:2 בַּכְּפִירִ֖ים at <the> Kephirim

Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me.

Job 4:10 כְפִירִ֣ים young lions

The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

Job 38:39 כְּפִירִ֣ים young lions

Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions

Here: Young lions in full strength that hunt for themselves. They are not helpless cubs. These are the lions in Psalm 104:21 that 'roar for their prey and seek their food from God'.

Psalm 17:12 וְ֝כִכְפִ֗יר and like a young lion

like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.

Psalm 34:10 כְּ֭פִירִים young lions

Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

Here: A young lion that is fully grown and hunts for itself. It is the animal at its peak of strength. It is the first word of the line because Psalm 34 is an alphabet poem, and this is the verse for the letter kaph (כ). The strongest hunter in the land is the picture of self-sufficiency.

Psalm 35:17 מִ֝כְּפִירִ֗ים from young lions

How long, O Lord, will You look on? Rescue my soul from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.

Here: 'From young lions'. These are lions in their prime that hunt for themselves, not cubs. In the Psalms they stand for fierce, hungry predators (Ps 34:10; 104:21). The 'gnashing teeth' of v. 16 now become the jaws of lions.

Psalm 58:6 כְּ֝פִירִ֗ים young lions

O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.

Here: Young adult lions in their prime that hunt for themselves. They are not cubs. Elsewhere in the Bible the word is a stock image for predatory rulers and officials (Ezekiel 19; Zephaniah 3:3).

Psalm 91:13 כְּפִ֣יר a young lion

You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample the young lion and serpent.

Here: A young lion in its prime, strong enough to hunt for itself, like the one that charged Samson (Judg 14:5). It is not a cub. In Hebrew poetry it is the most dangerous lion of all.

Psalm 104:21 הַ֭כְּפִירִים the young lions

The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

Here: Lions at full strength, old enough to hunt for themselves. They are not cubs. The word comes first in the sentence, so the scene opens on the most fearsome hunters of the night.

Proverbs 19:12 כַּ֭כְּפִיר like <the> young lion

A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

Here: Kefir is a young lion at full strength, past the cub stage and hunting for itself (compare Ezekiel 19:3). It is the most dangerous kind of lion, not an old or sleepy one.

Proverbs 20:2 כַּ֭כְּפִיר like <the> young lion

The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.

Here: 'Like' plus kephir, a young lion in its prime that hunts for itself: a full-grown, dangerous predator, not a cub. The comparison makes the king's displeasure a living threat.

Proverbs 28:1 כִּכְפִ֥יר like a young lion

The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

Here: "Like a young lion." A kephir is not a cub. It is a lion in its first full strength, old enough to hunt for itself. The picture is the animal at the height of its power, with nothing in its world it needs to run from.

Isaiah 5:29 כַּכְּפִירִ֤ים like <the> young lions

Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

Here: Young lions in their prime, grown and hunting on their own, not cubs. The plural turns the one lion into a pride: an army of hunters at peak strength.

Isaiah 11:6 וּכְפִ֤יר and young lion

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them.

Here: A lion in its prime that has started hunting on its own. It is not a cub. Of all the lions, it is the most dangerous.

Isaiah 31:4 וְהַכְּפִ֜יר and the young lion

For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

Here: A young lion in its prime, strong enough to hunt. Pairing the two lion words is a poetic doubling that means 'the lion in all its strength'. It is not two animals.

Jeremiah 2:15 כְפִרִ֔ים young lions

The young lions have roared at him; they have sounded their voices. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.

Here: Young lions at full strength: past the cub stage, hunting for themselves, and the most dangerous of the pride. The image stands for foreign armies that have mauled Israel.

Jeremiah 25:38 כַּכְּפִ֖יר like <the> young lion

He has left His den like a lion, for their land has been made a desolation by the sword of the oppressor, and because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Jeremiah 51:38 כַּכְּפִרִ֣ים like <the> young lions

They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.

Ezekiel 19:2 כְּפִרִ֖ים young lions

and say: ‘What was your mother? A lioness among the lions! She lay down among the young lions; she reared her cubs.

Ezekiel 19:3 כְּפִ֣יר a young lion

She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

Ezekiel 19:5 כְּפִ֥יר a young lion

When she saw that she had waited in vain, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

Ezekiel 19:6 כְּפִ֣יר a young lion

He prowled among the lions, and became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

Ezekiel 32:2 כְּפִ֥יר a young lion of

“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’

Here: A young lion in its prime, strong enough to hunt for itself. It is not a cub. It stands for the bold strength of a conquering king.

Ezekiel 38:13 כְּפִרֶ֙יהָ֙ young lions its

Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’

Ezekiel 41:19 כְפִ֥יר a young lion

the face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion was toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved all the way around the temple.

Hosea 5:14 וְכַכְּפִ֖יר and like <the> young lion

For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.

Here: 'And like the young lion.' A kefir is a lion that has grown up enough to hunt on its own and is at the peak of its strength. It is not a cub. Hebrew poetry often matches two words in parallel lines, and the second one usually makes the picture sharper.

Amos 3:4 כְּפִ֤יר a young lion

Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl in his den if he has caught nothing?

Micah 5:8 כִּכְפִ֖יר like a young lion

Then the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which tramples and tears as it passes through, with no one to rescue them.

Here: 'Like a young lion': a full-grown young male in its prime that hunts for itself, not a cub. It is often the fiercest lion in Hebrew poetry.

Nahum 2:11 לַכְּפִרִ֑ים for <the> young lions

Where is the lions’ lair or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs, with nothing to frighten them away?

Nahum 2:13 וּכְפִירַ֖יִךְ and young lions your

“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

Here: “And your young lions.” A kefîr is a lion in its strong prime, old enough to hunt. Here it stands for Nineveh’s warriors and princes, and it carries on the lion picture from verses 11–12.

Zechariah 11:3 כְּפִירִ֔ים young lions

Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

Here: Not cubs but young, full-strength lions old enough to hunt on their own. Like 'shepherds', the image is also used of princes and powerful rulers (Ezek 19; Nah 2:11–13).