“Do you hunt prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite ¹  of the lions,

The mighty lion ¹  perishes ²  for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness ³  are scattered.

You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness – who will rouse him?

They crouch and lie down like a lion, and as a lioness, ¹  who can stir him? Blessed is the one who blesses you, and cursed is the one who curses you!’”

Of Gad he said: Blessed be the one who enlarges Gad. Like a lioness he will dwell; he will tear at an arm – indeed, a scalp. ¹ 

Their roar is like a lion’s; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they drag it away and no one can come to the rescue.

and say: “‘What a lioness was your mother among the lions! She lay among young lions; ¹  she reared her cubs.

I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs – I will rip open their chests. I will devour them there like a lion – like a wild animal would tear them apart.

The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed ¹  and strangled prey to provide food ²  for his lionesses; he filled ³  his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

Indeed, the people will rise up like a lioness, and like a lion raises himself up; they will not lie down until they eat their ¹  prey, and drink the blood of the slain.” ² 

I am surrounded by lions; I lie down ¹  among those who want to devour me; ²  men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are a sharp sword. ³ 

For a nation ¹  has invaded ²  our ³  land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁴  Their teeth are like those ⁵  of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ⁶ 

Where now is the den of the lions, ¹  the feeding place ²  of the young lions, where ³  the lion, lioness, ⁴  and lion cub once prowled ⁵  and no one disturbed them? ⁶ 

This is a message ¹  about the animals in the Negev: Through a land of distress and danger, inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ²  by snakes and darting adders, ³  they transport ⁴  their wealth on the backs of donkeys, their riches on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot help them. ⁵