4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair 1
the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. 2
He is coming out to lay your land waste.
Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.
12:8 The people I call my own 3 have turned on me
like a lion 4 in the forest.
They have roared defiantly 5 at me.
So I will treat them as though I hate them. 6
25:38 The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. 7
So their lands will certainly 8 be laid waste
by the warfare of the oppressive nation 9
and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”
1 tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the
2 tn Heb “his place.”
3 tn See the note on the previous verse.
4 tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”
5 tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”
6 tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.
7 tn Heb “Like a lion he has left his lair.”
sn The text returns to the metaphor alluded to in v. 30. The bracketing of speeches with repeated words or motifs is a common rhetorical device in ancient literature.
8 tn This is a way of rendering the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably here for emphasis rather than indicating cause (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 1.e and compare usage in Jer 22:22).
9 tc Heb “by the sword of the oppressors.” The reading here follows a number of Hebrew
sn The connection between “war” (Heb “the sword”) and the wrath or anger of the