88 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the 

 prey, and drink the blood of the slain.* This prediction received 

 its accomplishment in the signal victories which the armies of Israel, 

 under the conduct of Joshua, obtained over the live nations of 

 Canaan. They did not rest, till, completely victorious, they had 

 reduced the whole country to their obedience. The forces of Joshua 

 did not, like some uncivilized hordes in modern times, literally 'eat 

 of the prey and drink the blood of the slain,' for such inhuman 

 conduct was equally opposed to the character of their God, and the 

 whole tenor of their law. The clause is merely a continuation of 

 the metaphor, and a hyperbolical description of the complete con- 

 quest, which, by the favor of God, awaited their arms. Such hyper- 

 bolical expressions are frequent in the sacred volume ; and when 

 viewed in the light of other scriptures, admit of a sense equally 

 consistent and profitable. Thus, In the reproof which the Psalmist 

 addresses to the wicked judges, he declares, ' the righteous shall 

 wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,' (Psalm Iviii. 11) : and in 

 his prayer at the removing of the ark : * The Lord said, I will bring 

 again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths 

 of the sea: that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine ene- 

 mies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same,' Psalm Ixviii. 4. 

 These phrases only denote that the victory which was to crown 

 their exertions, should be completely decisive. Balaam adds, in the 

 same prophecy, ' Ho crouched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great 

 lion ; who shall stir him up ? ' He was, in future times, to subdue 

 the land of Canaan so completely, that no enemy should presume 

 to disturb his repose ; which was accomplished in the reign of Da- 

 vid and of Solomon his son, when, by the heroic valor of the for- 

 mer, and the unparalelled wisdom of the latter, the whole East was 

 awed and charmed into peace and amity. 



The symbols that represented the Jewish people were often ap- 

 plied to particular tribes, of which a striking instance occurs in the 

 farewell benediction of Jacob: ' Judah is a lion's whelp: from the 

 prey, my son, thou art gone up ; he stooped down, he crouched as 

 a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall rouse him up? ' Genesis Ixix. 

 9. And of Gad, Moses said, 'Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he 

 dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head,' 

 Dent, xxxiii. 20, 22. 



But the sacred writers often allude to the savage disposition of 

 the lion 5 and in nil these instances the name is used in a bad sense. 

 Thus, the great adversary of mankind is compared to a roaring lion, 

 that walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Peter v. 8. 

 Furious and cruel as the lion when, within a single leap of his prey, 

 he thirsts for the destruction of poor mortals, as intensely as that 

 famished destroyer for the blood of the slain, and exerts still great- 

 er and more unwearied activity to accomplish his purpose. The 

 name which is imposed upon the arch-fiend, is, with much propri- 

 ety, assigned to the wicked, the victims and instruments of his cru- 

 lty and injustice. * The roaring of the lion, and the voice of tho 



