Lions in the Bible

 

Image public domain - source, here. 

Lions in the Bible

A search, using the Bible Gateway, returned 119 occurrences of "lion," "lioness," or other derivatives of the word, "lion" in the Bible. Links below are to some of these scriptures, as given in the World English Bible, which is public domain. Other versions are readily available from the targets of these links.

Genesis 49:9; Numbers 23:24, 24:9; Deuteronomy 33:20-22 are comparisons of one of the tribes of Israel, or of the whole nation, to a conquering lion. Genesis 49:9-10 is part of the prophecy of Jacob, about the character and future of his sons. A name sometimes used for Christ, "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," is based on this passage. (See Revelation 5.)

Judges 14 includes the story of Samson, who killed a lion with his bare hands, and the results of this action.

1 Samuel 17 describes David, speaking to Saul, about how God helped him to fight off one or more lions.

2 Samuel 1:23, 17:10, and 23:20, praise valiant men, who fought like lions.

1 Kings 7:29 and 36 describe the use of lion figures as part of the appearance of the temple.

1 Kings 10:19-20 describe the use of lion figures in Solomon's throne. (Also 2 Chronicles 9:18-19)

1 Kings 13 includes a story of a prophet who disobeyed God, and was killed by a lion.

1 Kings 20:36 is, again, part of a story of a man being killed for disobedience to God.

2 Kings 17:25-26 tell us that God sent lions to kill some of the non-Jews that had been placed in Israel, because they didn't worship Him.

1 Chronicles 11:22 says that Benaiah, son of Jehoida, killed a lion. 

1 Chronicles 12:8 compares an elite band from the tribe of Gad to lions.

Job 4:10-11 describe the life of lions.

Job 10:16, 28:8 and 38:39 mention lions. 38:39 uses the word "lioness."

There are 11 mentions of lions in the Psalms, 7 in Proverbs. Ecclesiastes 9:4 mentions a lion, as does the Song of Solomon. That last reference also has the first of 8 uses of the word, "leopard," in the Bible. There are no occurrences of "tiger," which is not surprising, since tigers do not, and did not, live in Bible lands. There are no mentions of "cat," either, although there were cats, probably the ancestors of modern domestic cats, in Bible lands.

There are 10 uses of "lion" in Isaiah, who also uses "lioness." Isaiah 11 tells us about the coming "peaceable kingdom," wherein lions will be vegetarians, and other currently dangerous animals, and children, will get along with each other. Isaiah 65 repeats that idea. However, this is Isaiah 35:9: "No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there." Matthew Henry's commentary doesn't mention the possible differences between Isaiah 35:9 and the other passages. Neither does A. R. Fausset, or John Calvin.

See this post, which has reproductions of some of the 62 versions of The Peaceable Kingdom, which were painted by one man, Edward Hicks, and comments on this body of work.

Jeremiah refers to lions 10 times, all of them as examples of danger. The same is true of Lamentations 3:10. 

Ezekiel uses the word 10 times, also. Five of these are about how a nation started out well, like a lion cub, then went astray and was punished. But Ezekiel also presents the idea of "living creatures," with four faces, one of them that of a lion. And he describes the future final temple, which, like the first temple, has lion faces as part of the decoration.

Daniel uses the word 9 times. All but two of these are about the story of the den of lions. The next-to-last tells of God's delivery from lions, and probably also does. But the last reference, Daniel 7:4, is about some sort of angel (?) like those presented in Ezekiel.

Hosea has 4 occurrences, all about someone being like a lion.

Joel says that an invading nation will have teeth like a lion.

Amos has 4 verses that use the word, all deriving lessons from lion behavior.

Micah's one reference is about the remaining Jews being like a lion among other nations.

Nahum has 8 uses of the word, two of them "lioness," in three verses.

Zephaniah has 1 use, comparing the officials of unbelieving Israel to preying lions. 

There is 1 use in Zechariah.

In 2 Timothy, Paul compares God's deliverance of Paul, his servant, to being rescued from a lion.

Hebrews 11:33 says that the heroes of faith stopped the mouths of lions, through their faith, which is probably referring to Daniel's experience.

1 Peter 5:8 compares Satan to a roaring lion, trying to devour believers.

5 of the uses in Revelation are as part of the description of a "beast," and I won't discuss these.

† A passage in Revelation 5 tells about the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Christ. He is also described as a lamb in the same passage. Either way, He has won the victory, and will be praised for it. This title, Lion of the tribe of Judah, is used for Him only in the first and last books of the Bible. (See Genesis 49:9-10)

Lions are Christ-like in that they are awe-inspiring, graceful, alert, powerful, not subject to being preyed on or afraid of other animals, and have social lives. It's no wonder that C. S. Lewis's Narnia books have a lion as Christ-figure.

Thanks for reading!

Update, May 25, 2025: I have now published a similar post on the use of "bear" in the Bible.

Sunspots 791

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: A sobering essay in Christianity Today, on how the political story we adhere to shapes our actions and attitudes more than our religious background does.

Eugene Cho on why (and how) he prayed for President Obama, and why he prays for President Trump.

Relevant has an article on Bible verses often taken out of context.

Environment: A new report, on Gizmodo, indicates that climate change may be going to be worse than we had thought, which was bad enough.

Health: (and politics) FiveThirtyEight on partisan differences in belief and behavior concerning COVID-19. The differences aren't as wide as they could be.

Science: A Gizmodo writer discusses the intelligence (or not) of dogs.

LifeHacker tells us why we can smell a fart through a mask.

Gizmodo reports that some supposedly inactive ingredients of medications may not be inactive.

Earther discusses the re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

NPR reports on how a boy's life is much better than it would have been, because of gene therapy.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Christian stewardship of the environment, from the New Testament

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse.

Psalm 19:1-3 The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

God’s revelation should be as clear as possible. Christians have translated the Bible into many languages, revised translations so that they speak more clearly, and created and updated church music, so that it fits the culture better. Nature also speaks of God. The message of God through nature should be as clear – free of extinction, pollution and destruction – as we can make it. Unfortunately, we are gradually degrading God’s revelation through nature. For example, a third of the people on earth can’t see the Milky Way now, because of “light pollution.”

Colossians 1 describes Christ, and his mission, which includes reconciliation, and holding things together:
17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. 18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Christ holds things together, and reconciles all things to himself.
 
2 Corinthians 5 indicates that believers are to carry out Christ’s ministry of reconciliation: 18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. (scripture from the World English Bible, public domain)

If believers are responsible for helping Christ in reconciliation, aren’t we also responsible for helping Him to hold all things together? (Which means, in part, caring for the environment.) See also Psalm 24:1, Genesis 1:28, 31, Psalm 104:24-5 and more. This post considers what the Old Testament says about our responsibility to care for the environment.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 43

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

For every need of the spiritual life this is the one thing needful, the Holy Spirit.  All the fulness is in Jesus; the fulness of grace and truth, out of which we receive grace for grace.  The Holy Spirit is the appointed conveyancer, whose special work it is to make Jesus and all there is in Him for us ours in personal appropriation, in blessed experience.  He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; as wonderful as the life is, so wonderful is the provision by which such an agent is provided to communicate it to us.  If we but yield ourselves entirely to the disposal of the Spirit, and let Him have His way with us, He will manifest the life of Christ within us. He will do this with a Divine power, maintaining the life of Christ in us in uninterrupted continuity. Surely, if there is one prayer that should draw us to the Father’s throne and keep us there, it is this:  for the Holy Spirit, whom we as children have received, to stream into us and out from us in greater fulness.

In the variety of the gifts which the Spirit has to dispense, He meets the believer’s every need.  Just think of the names He bears.  The Spirit of grace, to reveal and impart all of grace there is in Jesus.  The Spirit of faith, teaching us to begin and go on and increase in ever believing.  The Spirit of adoption and assurance, who witnesses that we are God’s children, and inspires the confiding and confident Abba, Father!  The Spirit of truth, to lead into all truth, to make each word of God ours in deed and in truth.  The Spirit of prayer, through whom we speak with the Father; prayer that must be heard.  The Spirit of judgment and burning, to search the heart, and convince of sin.  The Spirit of holiness, manifesting and communicating the Father’s holy presence within us.  The Spirit of power, through whom we are strong to testify boldly and work effectually in the Father’s service.  The Spirit of glory, the pledge of our inheritance, the preparation and the foretaste of the glory to come. Surely the child of God needs but one thing to be able really to live as a child:  it is, to be filled with this Spirit.

Sunspots 790

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: National Public Radio reports that multi-racial congregations don't really bridge the gaps between the cultures of races.

Christianity Today has an article saying that white churches don't really deal with racism.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us about a single web page that lets you click on a variety of non-keyboard symbols, and then copy them into a document. I tried a few: ∛ ⊗ ↘ π ♫. This works in Word, as well as in my HTML editor.

Education: Gizmo's Freeware tells us about the online etymology dictionary.


Environment: Gizmodo reports that Morgan Stanley has begun keeping track of their investments in fossil fuel development projects.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a government study that recommends no more than one drink (whatever that means) of alcohol per day for all adults.

Politics: Leonard Pitts blames her church, her parents, and a lot of other entities, including traditional news media, for the death of Carsyn Leigh Davis, after she attended a mask-free celebration for teens at her church.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the data, and finds that Trump has a problem with voter enthusiasm, as does Biden.

FiveThirtyEight also finds that most Republican governors are getting low polling marks for their handling of COVID-19, and most Democratic governors are getting good marks.

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength looks back at the George Floyd story.


Science: Gizmodo reports on evidence, from preserved dung, that humans came to North America about 14,000 years ago.

Inverse reports that some deep-sea fish have extremely black materials as part of their skin.

Gizmodo reports on a material that can't be cut.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 42

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

Or was not this the glory of Jesus as a Son upon earth, that the Spirit of the Father was in Him?  At His baptism in Jordan the two things were united,—the voice, proclaiming Him the Beloved Son, and the Spirit, descending upon Him.  And so the apostle says of us, ‘Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’  A king seeks in the whole education of his son to call forth in him a kingly spirit.  Our Father in heaven desires to educate us as His children for the holy, heavenly life in which He dwells, and for this gives us, from the depths of His heart, His own Spirit.  It was this which was the whole aim of Jesus when, after having made atonement with His own blood, He entered for us into God’s presence, that He might obtain for us, and send down to dwell in us, the Holy Spirit.  As the Spirit of the Father, and of the Son, the whole life and love of the Father and the Son are in Him; and, coming down into us, He lifts us up into their fellowship.  As Spirit of the Father, He sheds abroad the Father’s love, with which He loved the Son, in our hearts, and teaches us to live in it.  As Spirit of the Son, He breathes in us the childlike liberty, and devotion, and obedience in which the Son lived upon earth.  The Father can bestow no higher or more wonderful gift than this:  His own Holy Spirit, the Spirit of sonship.

Sunspots 789

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Relevant interviews N. T. Wright about the pandemic.

The US, under the Trump administration, is admitting far fewer persecuted Christians from other countries than it has for the last 40 years, according to Christianity Today.

Environment: California condors are making a comeback, thanks to efforts to save them, according to Gizmodo.

Science: The Scientist reports that innovative species of birds are more likely to prosper. The article mentions some amazing examples of bird innovation.

The Scientist also tells us that social isolation can have a detrimental effect on the brain.

Gizmodo reports on studies of Andean condors, which can soar, without flapping their wings, for as much as 100 miles.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 41

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?’—Luke xi.
 
IN the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord had already given utterance to His wonderful
HOW MUCH MORE?  Here in Luke, where He repeats the question, there is a difference. Instead of speaking, as then of giving good gifts, He says, ‘How much more shall the heavenly Father give THE HOLY SPIRIT?’  He thus teaches us that the chief and the best of these gifts is the Holy Spirit, or rather, that in this gift all others are comprised  The Holy Spirit is the first of the Father’s gifts, and the one He delights most to bestow.  The Holy Spirit is therefore the gift we ought first and chiefly to seek. The unspeakable worth of this gift we can easily understand.  Jesus spoke of the Spirit as ‘the promise of the Father;’ the one promise in which God’s Fatherhood revealed itself. 

The best gift a good and wise father can bestow on a child on earth is his own spirit.  This is the great object of a father in education—to reproduce in his child his own disposition and character.  If the child is to know and understand his father; if, as he grows up, he is to enter into all his will and plans; if he is to have his highest joy in the father, and the father in him,—he must be of one mind and spirit with him.  And so it is impossible to conceive of God bestowing any higher gift on His child than this, His own Spirit.  God is what He is through His Spirit; the Spirit is the very life of God.  Just think what it means—God giving His own Spirit to His child on earth.

Sunspots 788

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity:A solid article in Christianity Today about racism and oppression in general.

Computing: Microsoft has instructions on how to disable OneDrive.


Environment: The Huffington Post points out that President Trump has destroyed far more monuments than all the protesters combined.

Democrats in a House Committee on Climate change are taking their subject seriously, but maybe too seriously, according to Gizmodo. Should we really block out part of the sunlight that falls on earth?

Health: The Scientist on whether COVID-19 is spread through the air more than we had thought.
Gizmo also has an article on spreading. There are questions.

Politics: (and education) NPR and Gizmodo report that foreign students in the US are being told that, if their college goes entirely on-line, they have to leave the country. Not exactly welcoming people who often end up as very productive members of society.

Science: From Gizmodo: The song of a common species of bird has quickly changed, apparently as the new song has been copied by other birds.

Gizmodo also reports on the discovery of a new "spot" on Jupiter.

Gizmodo also reports on the death of hundreds of elephants in Botswana.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.
Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the School of prayer, 40

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

We need to get in at the tenderness and helpfulness which lie in these words, and to rest upon it—your Father.  Speak them over to yourself until something of the wonderful truth is felt by us.  It means that I am bound to God by the closest and tenderest relationship; that I have a right to His love and His power and His blessing, such as nothing else could give me.  O the boldness with which we can draw near!  O the great things we have a right to ask for!  Your Father.  It means that all His infinite love and patience and wisdom bend over me to help me. In this relationship lies not only the possibility of holiness; there is infinitely more than that. 

Here we are to begin, in the patient love of our Father.  Think how He knows us apart and by ourselves, in all our peculiarities, and in all our weaknesses and difficulties.  The master judges by the result, but our Father judges by the effort.  Failure does not always mean fault.  He knows how much things cost, and weighs them where others only measure. 

YOUR FATHER.  Think how great store His love sets by the poor beginnings of the little ones, clumsy and unmeaning as they may be to others.  All this lies in this blessed relationship and infinitely more.  Do not fear to take it all as your own.

Sunspots 787

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Relevant reports on a poll on whether people are comfortable with going back to church.

Ken Schenck discusses Inspiration, Infallibility, and Inerrancy.

A Christianity Today writer tells us that, in the Bible, Black Lives Matter.

Education: A collection of interesting maps you've never seen before, such as what language is spoken most commonly in each US state, after English and Spanish.


Health: FiveThirtyEight discusses mask research.

Humor: Gizmo's Freeware reports on on-line jigsaw puzzles.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight has a longish article on the history of race and the Republican party.

Science: Gizmodo reports that sled dogs have been around for about 10,000 years.

Gizmodo also reports on a newly discovered ecosystem, in the ocean off the coast of Greenland.

The Scientist reports that gene editing of human embryos may be dangerous.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!