For wild animals ¹  are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.

for the wicked seem to be everywhere, ¹  when people promote evil. ² 

You make it dark and night comes, ¹  during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

They return in the evening; they growl ¹  like a dog and prowl around outside ²  the city.

They return in the evening; they growl ¹  like a dog and prowl around outside ²  the city.

If I lift myself up, ¹  you hunt me as a fierce lion, ²  and again ³  you display your power ⁴  against me.

Day and night they walk around on its walls, ¹  while wickedness and destruction ²  are within it.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Catch ¹  the foxes ²  for us, the little foxes, ³  that ruin the vineyards ⁴  – for our vineyard is in bloom.

Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

Do not go out into the countryside. Do not travel on the roads. For the enemy is there with sword in hand. ¹  They are spreading terror everywhere.” ² 

Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, ¹  is on the prowl looking for someone ²  to devour.

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

But ¹  these men, ²  like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed ³  – do not understand whom ⁴  they are insulting, and consequently ⁵  in their destruction they will be destroyed, ⁶ 

So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them. Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them. Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. ¹  For they have rebelled so much and done so many unfaithful things. ²