Ancient Israel's Animal Life Part II, Aryeh אַריֵה the Lion

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Lions are featured regularly throughout the Bible, both in symbolism as well as historical reference. 

Samson killed a lion with his bare hands on a journey to the then-Philistine territory of Timnath (Judges 14—This is when Samson saw a Philistine woman, fell in love with her, and wanted her as a wife, but his parents were saying, those uncircumcized people?  You couldn't fall for one of our women?

                                                               

 When they reached the vineyards of Timnath, a young lion was roaring toward him! He tore it apart as one tears apart a kid (goat) though he had nothing in his hand.  He did not tell his parents what he had done.  ...Later, he returned after some time to marry her, but he turned aside to see the fallen carcass of the lion, and a swarm of bees was in the body of the lion, with honey.  He scraped it into his hands and went, walking and eating.....

Lions are, in fact, referenced over 150 times in the Hebrew Bible.                                                    

 David ( ruled from 1010-970 BCE) killed a lion while protecting his father’s flocks in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17). David was telling King Saul, "HaShem (G-d)  who rescued me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, He will rescue me from this Philistine!"

                                                              

Here's David a young teen, ready to kill a lion; fearless.  In those days, the job of a shepherd could be very dangerous.         

                                                           

 A disobedient prophet was killed by a lion in Bethel (1 Kings 13).  But really, lions in Israel? It's a story of a false prophet who meets up with a real prophet.   "It happened after he had eaten a meal and after he had drunk that he saddled the donkey for the prophet who he had brought back.  He went and a lion encountered him on the way and killed him, and his corpse was cast down on the road, and the donkey stood next to it, and the lion also stood next to the corpse.  People came by and saw the lion and they related it to the city, where the old prophet lived. " 

                                                       

The riddle was impossible to discern with deduction alone, since it was based on a private experience of Samson's, who killed a young lion and found bees and honey in its corpse. Hence, the answer to the riddle is as follows: "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" (Judges 14:18).

                                                     

    Assyrian relief depicting  King Ashurbanipal hunting lions (645-635 BCE) now in British Museum in London---during Judah's days with King Amon who became King when 22 years old after his father, Manasseh, ruled for 2 years, then was killed by conspirators (servants or officials).  

The Lion of Judah (Hebrew: אריה יהודה‎ Aryeh Yehudah) is a Jewish national and cultural symbol, traditionally regarded as the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah. According to the Torah, the tribe consists of the descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The association between Judah and the lion can first be found in the blessing given by Jacob to his son Judah in the Book of Genesis.(Gen.49:8)  "A lion cub is Judah;  from the prey, my son, you elevated yourself. 

 He crouches, lies down like a lion, and like an awesome lion, who dares rouse him?"

                                                            

Actually, lions did once flourish in and around the Holy Land. The species is known as the Asiatic lion. They are believed to have become extinct within Israel at the time of the Crusades—around 1200 c.e.—and became extinct in the wider Middle East during the 20th century. These animals can now be found only in the Indian state of Gujarat, and they are endangered. Modern examples of these lions are about the same size as central African lions, with males weighing up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds). However, a 17th-century Indian emperor reportedly killed a beast weighing just over 300 kilograms (660 pounds). This gives some idea of the potential size of beasts faced by Samson and David.

                                                           

The biblical Judah (in Hebrew: Yehuda) is the eponymous ancestor of the Tribe of Judah, which is traditionally symbolized by a lion. In Genesis, the patriarch Jacob ("Israel") gave that symbol to this tribe when he refers to his son Judah as a Gur Aryeh גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְהוּדָה, "Young Lion" (Genesis 49:9) when blessing him. In Jewish naming tradition the Hebrew name and the substitute name are often combined as a pair, as in this case.                                                             

The Lion of Judah was used as a Jewish symbol for many years, and as Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah;  in 1950 it was included in     the Emblem of Jerusalem.

Resource:

https://watchjerusalem.co.il/592-the-animals-of-the-bible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_of_Judah#:~:text=The%20Lion%20of%20Judah%20(Hebrew,the%20fourth%20son%20of%20Jacob.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson%27s_riddle