אַרְיֵה

From the study of Isaiah 11:7

Range of meaning

The full-grown lion. The Asiatic lion lived in Judah's thickets and the Jordan valley during the biblical period. As an image it stands for strength, royal power, and violent devouring, whether by enemies, kings, or God in judgment.

Against the English

No real difference in meaning. The weight of the image is what an English reader may miss.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judah is a lion's cub (Gen 49:9). Assyria roars like a lion that seizes prey and carries it off with no one to rescue it (Isa 5:29). YHWH growls like a lion over prey and is not scared off by shepherds (Isa 31:4). A shepherd snatches back two legs or a piece of ear from a lion's mouth (Amos 3:12). Assyrian kings decorated their palaces with lion-hunt reliefs to show their power over chaos.

From the study of Hosea 11:10

Range of meaning

Lion: the most powerful predator in Israel's world. In poetry it stands for strength, kingship, danger and sudden violence.

Against the English

Every English version has 'lion', and the word is accurate. What English readers miss is how the image works in Hosea: it has already been used for God attacking.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hos 5:14: 'I will be like a lion to Ephraim… I will tear and go away.' Hos 13:7–8: 'I will be like a lion to them… I will devour them like a lion.' Amos 3:8: 'The lion has roared; who will not fear?' Asiatic lions lived in the Jordan thickets (Jer 49:19) until long after the biblical period.

From the study of Jeremiah 4:7

Range of meaning

The lion, especially the grown hunting animal (Hebrew has other words for the young lion, kĕpîr, and the lioness). Used literally of lions that killed flocks and people (Judg 14:5; 1 Kgs 13:24; Amos 3:12). Used as a picture of strength and royal power (Gen 49:9; Prov 30:30) and of a predator that cannot be stopped, whether an enemy army or God himself in judgment (Hos 5:14; 13:7–8; Amos 3:8).

Against the English

'Lion' is accurate. KJV's 'The lion' sounds like one particular, known lion. The Hebrew has no 'the': 'a lion has gone up'. It is unnamed and all the more frightening for that.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah keeps coming back to this image. In 2:15 'lions have roared against him… they made his land a waste (lĕšammâ); his cities are burned, without inhabitant'. That is almost the same wording as 4:7. In 5:6 a lion from the forest kills; in 49:19 and 50:44 'like a lion coming up (yaʿăleh) from the thickets of the Jordan'. In Mesopotamia, Assyrian kings called themselves lions and staged royal lion hunts. Glazed-brick lions lined Nebuchadnezzar II's Processional Way in Babylon. Daniel 7:4 later pictures Babylon as a lion with eagle's wings (compare the eagles in Jer 4:13).