Where is the lions’ lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion’s cub, with nothing to frighten them away?
‘Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets , of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me? ’
Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
A lion has gone up from his thicket; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to make your land a waste. Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.
For this is what the Lord said to me: As a lion or young lion growls over its prey when a band of shepherds is called out against it, and it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their noise, so the Lord of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
A people rise up like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion. They will not lie down until they devour the prey and drink the blood of the slain.
‘Son of man, lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, “You compare yourself to a lion of the nations, but you are like a monster , in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churn up the waters with your feet, and muddy the rivers.
They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with a drawn blade. So he will rescue us from Assyria when it invades our land, when it marches against our territory.