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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Lion
Subjects in this Topic:
'ariy, 'arieh ("the bearer," Umbreit); guwr, "the whelp" (); kephir, "the young lion" in adolescent vigour, his "great teeth" grown (), having his own covert (); labiy, in adult maturity (); libyah, "lioness"; la'ish, "an old (rather strong, from an Arabic root) lion": , where the five different terms occur; shachal is "the roaring lion"; labiy appears in the German lowe. The variety of names shows the abundance of lions in the regions of Scripture at that time. Now there are none in Palestine. But the names Lebaoth (), Arieh (), Ariel for Jerusalem (-2; ), Laish (), incidentally, and so undesignedly, confirm the Scripture assertions as to their former existence.
The forests and tangled thickets have been almost swept away which were their former lair. Jordan's wooded banks, its "pride" (as some translated, but others "swelling"), gave cover to lions (), "a lion from the swelling (so Calvin, the overflow forcing the lion from the woody banks) of Jordan." The Asiatic lion has a short curly mane, and is shorter and rounder than the African. It laid waste villages (-26; ) and slew men (; -36). Shepherds, as David, sometimes singly encountered it, and prevailed (-35; ); oftener in bands, frightening him with shouts into a pit covered over with reed or branches lightly, to entrap it (; -9). Benaiah slew one in a pit or cistern, in which it had taken refuge in a snowstorm ().
Samson slew one at Timnath (-6). Lion hunting is depicted as the amusement of the Ninevite kings, who followed the great hunter Nimrod's example. Captured lions were caged, which illustrates the image in . The lion symbolizes bravery, so the faces of the warriors of Gad who joined David are designated "the faces of lions" (); also might and royalty, as in the winged lion figures with human heads in the Assyrian palace remains, and in Solomon's steps to his throne (-20); so the royal tribe Judah had the lion as its standard. Messiah is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David," yet also the Lamb, combining opposites. The first of the four living creatures was like a lion (, compare ), the kingly aspect of Messiah in Matthew.
Nineveh is compared to a lion's den, full of remains of its prey, appropriately, as lion figures abounded in the Assyrian palaces, -12, "where is," etc.? i.e. God will so destroy it that its site will be hard to find; fulfilled to the letter (). Lions haunted dens in Lebanon and Hermon (). Balaam compares Israel to "a great lion (labiy) and a young lion" ('arieh): ; . , "will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey?" i.e., God would not threaten wrath if there were not; a guilty nation, its object (); "will a young lion cry out of his den if he (the old lion) have taken nothing?" The young lion lies silent until the parent lion brings the prey near, then the scent rouses him; so the prophet would not speak against Israel if God did not reveal to him Israel's sin requiring Israel's punishment.
Satan is the "roaring lion" as well as the subtle serpent (). Sha'ag is the lion's roar in seeking prey (); naham his cry when seizing it (, compare ); hagah his growl defying any effort to snatch from him his prey (); na'ar the cry of the young lion (); rabats is his crouching in his lair (); shacah and yashab () his lying in wait; 'arab his secretly doing so (); ramas his stealthily creeping after prey (); zinneq his leap, flinging himself on it () (Smith's Bible Dictionary).