Lion

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

King of beasts

• Micah 5:8 Then the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which tramples and tears as it passes through, with no one to rescue them.

Fierceness of

• Job 4:10 The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
• Job 28:8 Proud beasts have never trodden it; no lion has ever prowled over it.
• Psalm 7:2 or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
• Proverbs 22:13 The slacker says, “There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!”
• Jeremiah 2:15 The young lions have roared at him; they have sounded their voices. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.
• Jeremiah 49:19 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
• Jeremiah 50:44 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
• Hosea 13:8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast tearing them apart.

The roaring of

• Psalm 22:13 They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.
• Proverbs 20:2 The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.

Strength of

• Proverbs 30:30 a lion, mighty among beasts, refusing to retreat before anything;
• Isaiah 38:13 I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
• Joel 1:6 For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

Instincts of, in taking prey

• Psalm 10:9 He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
• Psalm 17:12 like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
• Lamentations 3:10 He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.
• Amos 3:4 Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl in his den if he has caught nothing?
• Nahum 2:12 The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.

Lair of, in the jungles

• Jeremiah 4:7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.
• Jeremiah 25:38 He has left His den like a lion, for their land has been made a desolation by the sword of the oppressor, and because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

The bases in the temple ornamented by mouldings of

• 1 Kings 7:29 and on the panels between the uprights were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the uprights was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of beveled work.
• 1 Kings 7:36 He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and panels, wherever each had space, with wreaths all around.

Twelve statues of, on the stairs leading to Solomon's throne

• 1 Kings 10:19–20 The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, with a lion standing beside each armrest. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any kingdom.

Samson's riddle concerning

• Judges 14:14 So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” For three days they were unable to explain the riddle.
• Judges 14:18 Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” So he said to them: “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”

Proverb of

• Ecclesiastes 9:4 There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Parable of

• Ezekiel 19:1–9 “As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel and say: ‘What was your mother? A lioness among the lions! She lay down among the young lions; she reared her cubs. She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men. When the nations…

Kept in captivity

• Daniel 6 Now it pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, and over them three administrators, including Daniel, to whom these satraps were accountable so that the king would not suffer loss. Soon, by his extraordinary spirit, Daniel distinguished himself among the administrators… (whole chapter)

Sent as judgment upon the Samaritans

• 2 Kings 17:25–26 Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The peoples that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. B…

Killed by

Samson

• Judges 14:5–9 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him, and the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as one would tear a young goat. But he did not tell his fath…

David

• 1 Samuel 17:34 David replied, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,
• 1 Samuel 17:36 Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

Benaiah

• 2 Samuel 23:20 And Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a man of valor from Kabzeel, a man of many exploits. He struck down two champions of Moab, and on a snowy day he went down into a pit and killed a lion.

Saints

• Hebrews 11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,

Disobedient prophet killed by

• 1 Kings 13:24–28 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city…

An unnamed person killed by

• 1 Kings 20:36 Then the prophet said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, as soon as you depart from me a lion will kill you.” And when he left, a lion found him and killed him.

Used for the torture of criminals

• Daniel 6:16–24 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of…
• Daniel 7:12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was removed, but they were granted an extension of life for a season and a time.
• 2 Timothy 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

Figurative

Of a ruler's anger

• Proverbs 19:12 A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
• Jeremiah 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.
• Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
• Hosea 5:14 For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.

Of Satan

• 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Of divine judgments

• Isaiah 15:9 The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon — a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Symbolical

• Genesis 49:9 Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?
• Isaiah 29:1 Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.

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• Ezekiel 1:10 The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle.
• Ezekiel 10:14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: the first face was that of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.
• Daniel 7:4 The first beast was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and given the mind of a man.
• Revelation 4:7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.
• Revelation 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
• Revelation 9:8 They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions.
• Revelation 9:17 Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur.
• Revelation 13:2 The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.