a

the mouth of a lion." These hints entirely correspond with the natural history of that animal. His mouth is very large; his jaws are exceeding strong, and armed with a row of long and massy teeth. When he ranges the forest in search of his prey, the moment he spies the victim, he yawns hideously, rears his hair on end, and with a horrid yell seizes it, and bathes in blood his ravenous jaws : "Gaudet hians immane, comasque arrexit, et hæret

Visceribus super incumbens: lavit imbroba teter

Ora cruor."

Eneid. lib. x, 1. 726.

In any animal, the teeth, and especially the grinders, excel all the other bones in hardness and solidity; but the teeth of the lion are so extremely hard, that they are selected by the inspired writers to represent the most destructive agents of nature or art. Thus, the prophet Joel summoned his countrymen to weeping and lamentation, and assigned this reason: "For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion,"-strong, well-proportioned, and deeply grooved. In the book of Revelation, the mystical locusts had "teeth as the teeth of lions." When the oppressor is deprived of his power, the teeth of the lion, in the figurative language of Scripture, are said to be broken: "By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken." This figure the royal Psalmist has adopted in his prayer against the wicked: "Break their teeth, O

a Rev. xiii, 2.

b Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. viii, cap. 21. Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, c. 2, p. 733. * Joel i, 6. e Job iv, 9, 10.

d

Rev. ix, 8.

God, in their mouth; break out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord." The strict propriety of the figure, is attested by the lines of a Grecian bard: Nature has given horns to the bulls, hoofs to the horses, swiftness to the hares, a huge mouth armed with teeth to the lions.

Λεσσι χασμό οδοντων.

Anac. Ode ii.

The lion's paw is in Scripture called his hand, and represented as not less formidable than his teeth. "David said moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw (or hand) of the lion, and out of the paw (or hand) of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." The king of Persia made a decree, commanding his subjects to fear the living God, "who hath delivered Daniel from the power (or hand) of the lions.”h Bochart contends, that there is no catachresis in this mode of speaking, as learned men generally suppose; for the fore-feet of the lion, which he chiefly uses in tearing his prey, while he rests upon his hind-feet, may truly and properly be called his hands. The Greek writers familiarly speak of the lion's hand, by which they mean his fore-foot. Oppian says, in his third book, the lion carries a torpedo under his right hand (Astiтsgny vwo xuga), alluding probably to the overwhelming terror which seizes the victim, when it sees him preparing to give it the fatal blow. The lion's paw is armed with very long and sharp claws, which render it still more formidable; and as if he knew how much he surpassed the other animals in this respect, it has been remarked, that he guards them with the greatest care. It is therefore with strict propriety, that David so particularly mentions the kindness of God, in saving him

f Ps. lviii, 6.

1 Sam. xvii, 37.

h Dan. vi, 27.

i Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, c. 2, p. 734.

j Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 2, p. 735. Herodot. lib. iii, cap. 108.

VOL. II.

G

from the paw of that terrible destroyer, and calls it a hand, (in which he has been followed by the classical writers of antiquity,) because it is the instrument with which the savage beast knocks down and tears his prey.

He is a solitary animal, and fixes his abode in the woods and mountains, far removed from the dwellings of men. When he goes forth in quest of his prey, he will not admit the company even of his mate. This unsocial and gloomy disposition, is frequently marked in the sacred volume. Thus Jeremiah threatens the degenerate nobles of Judah: "Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them." In the twelfth chapter, we find the same allusion: "Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest: it crieth out against me, therefore have I hated it." That the depth of the forest is his chosen haunt, and not the place of his accidental residence, is still more evident from the interrogation of Amos: "Will a lion roar in the forest

when he hath no prey ?"

Theocritus, in his first Idyll,

adverts to this habit: "Even the lion out of the wood la

mented him when dying:"

Τηνον χ ̓ ὡ εκ δρυμοιο λεων ανεκλαυσε θανόντα.

But his favourite retreats are on the declivities of woody mountains, whither he retires from the plains, after being satiated with prey. This fact is recognized in the blessing which Moses pronounced on Dan before he died: “Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan."" The inferior summits of Lebanon swarm with lions and other wild beasts, which has given occasion to that animated address by the Saviour to his church: "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon,

1 Jer. v, G.

Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iv, cap. 3.

m Amos iii, 4.

n Deut. xxxiii, 22.

from the lion's den, from the mountains of the leopards."" The circumstance has not escaped the notice of uninspired bards; from one of whom we give the following quotation:

“Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem.”

Æneid. lib. iv, I. 159.

He wishes that a boar or a tawny lion would descend from the mountain; and, in a former quotation, Homer insis nuates, that the strongest and fiercest lions were (ogsoirgoP) reared in the mountains. But when stung with hun ger, they descend from their elevated retreats into the plain and cultivated parts of the country, to prowl about the sheep-cotes or the villages, and often commit dreadful ravages on the defenceless inhabitants." The Cuthites, whom the king of Assyria brought from Babylon, and placed in the cities of Samaria, suffered exceedingly from the depredations of these ruthless destroyers at the begin ning of their settlement. It is no uncommon thing, as appears from the language of the sluggard, to find these dangerous animals ranging the streets of their unwalled towns and villages: "The slothful man saith there is a lion without: I shall be slain in the streets;" and in an

other proverb, “There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets." Buffon, following Pliny, Eustathius, and other ancient naturalists, informs us, "that while young and nimble, the lion subsists by hunting, and seldom quits the deserts or the forests, where he finds plenty of wild animals; but when he grows old, heavy, and less fit for the exercise of hunting, he approaches frequented places, and becomes more dangerous to man and the domestic ani

mals. It has, indeed, been remarked, that when he sees men and animals together, he attacks the latter, and never the former, unless any man strike him; for in this case he is wonderfully alert in distinguishing the person who hurts him, and he instantly quits his prey to take vengeance on the offender." These traits in his character, explain the reason that God so often threatens to be as a lion to his ancient people. He discerns at once who it is that transgresses his law, and is prompt in taking vengeance on the sinner. They also throw light on a passage in the prophecies of Hosea: "For I will be unto Ephraim as a great lion," that leaves the forest and approaches the habitations of men, and is therefore more to be dreaded; "and to the house of Judah as a young lion," that hunts prey in the desert or the forest, and is therefore less to be feared. How exactly this corresponds with historical fact, is well known to every careful reader of the Scriptures; for Ephraim, or the ten tribes, were driven away from their own land into a distant region, where they were doomed to suffer a very protracted exile; while Judah continued to hold his possessions an hundred and thirtythree years longer, and when carried into captivity at the end of that period by the king of Babylon, it was only for the short term of seventy years, till the land had enjoyed her sabbaths.

his

The lion has his den in a cave or thorny brake, or among the thick trees, where he sometimes lies in wait for his prey. Thither he carries the spoils of the chase, with which he feeds his whelps, or satisfies the demands of his

s Nat. Hist. vol. v, p. 85. See also Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. viii, cap. 16. Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iv, cap. 34. t Hos. v, 14.

u Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 2, p. 737.