A lion
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H738 names a lion and supports comparisons involving strength, danger, predation, courage, rule, or an unmistakable roar. The image is morally flexible because context can compare a tribe, enemy, ruler, warrior, threat, or even the LORD's summons to a lion.
Reader summary
Full entry for אֲרִי (H738) · Open the biblical lexicon
H738 names a lion and supports comparisons involving strength, danger, predation, courage, rule, or an unmistakable roar. The image is morally flexible because context can compare a tribe, enemy, ruler, warrior, threat, or even the LORD's summons to a lion.
The BSB source-word alignment has 80 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Like a lion (12), a lion (11), lion (7), lions (7), the lion (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 49:9. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Kings (13), Jeremiah (8), Isaiah (7), Psalms (6).
H738 names a lion and supports comparisons involving strength, danger, predation, courage, rule, or an unmistakable roar. The image is morally flexible because context can compare a tribe, enemy, ruler, warrior, threat, or even the Lord's summons to a lion. In 1Sam. 17. 34, David recalls defending his father's flock when a lion or bear carried off a lamb, presenting concrete pastoral danger.
In Gen. 49. 9, Judah is compared to a lion in Jacob's blessing, contributing to royal expectation around the tribe. In Amos. 3. 4, a lion's roar and captured prey form part of questions showing that announced judgment has a cause. H738 opens teaching on protective courage, dangerous power, kingship, and prophetic warning. It does not make every lion righteous, identify courage with aggression, or permit leaders to behave as predators.
H738 appears as an actual predator and in comparisons for tribes, warriors, rulers, enemies, God, and judgment. Roaring, crouching, tearing, hunting, and strength supply different aspects of the image.
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,
David describes pursuing a lion or bear that carried a lamb from his father's flock, grounding his confidence in prior protective service.
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?
Jacob compares Judah to a young lion returning from prey and resting beyond challenge within a blessing about rule.
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?
Amos asks whether a lion roars without prey as part of a chain arguing that prophetic warning follows the Lord's revealed action.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Symbol of strength, ferocity, and predatory power; used metaphorically for God's destructive judgment and human aggression
Symbol of strength, ferocity, and predatory power; used metaphorically for God's destructive judgment and human aggression
a lion BDB: lion Usage: (young) lion, pierce (from the margin).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 81 lexical occurrence verses.
אֲרִי is built from this root:
It conveys the decisive and unstoppable strength granted to God’s restored people.Hosea 13:1-8
Image of sovereign judgment.Hosea 5:8-15
Metaphor for Yahweh’s consuming judgment.Micah 5:6-9
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H738 works because biblical hearers knew a lion as both majestic and lethal. David's flock story portrays courage directed toward rescuing a vulnerable animal, not violence for reputation. Jacob's blessing places lion imagery around Judah's future rule, contributing to a royal trajectory that later Scripture develops. Amos uses the roar's causal relation to prey to defend the seriousness of prophetic warning: the prophet speaks because the Lord has acted and revealed.
Other passages compare violent officials, invading nations, or judgment to lions, so the image never sanctifies power by itself. Faithful leadership protects rather than consumes the flock. Courage accepts risk for another's life and remains accountable to God. Christological development toward Judah's ruler is canonical, but each Old Testament lion passage retains its own speaker, target, and purpose.
A lion image can promise, warn, praise, or terrify; context decides which.
Gen.49.9
H738 is a Hebrew noun for lion. Related lion vocabulary may distinguish age or sex, while H738 itself can be literal or participate in simile and metaphor. Verbs such as roar, crouch, tear, and devour identify the active feature.
Revelation announces the Lion of Judah and then shows the slain Lamb, interpreting messianic victory through sacrificial faithfulness. Peter also compares the devil's threat to a roaring lion, confirming that lion imagery remains morally contextual.