Job 4:10-11
The Lion Roars, the cub howls,
Yet, the teeth of the great lions are broken.
The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey,
The young of the lioness scattered.
These two verses are so intertwined, I wanted to try and write about them both at once. We have two cats: Gregory and Cheez-it. A grey cat and, you guessed it, an orange cat. They are brothers and we have had them since we could first take them from their mother. They are my insight into cats of all kinds, but as dangerous as their first few weeks was, it is pretty safe for them locked in the house.
10 – “The lion roars” brings a picture of a mature male making sure everyone knows he is the leader of the pride. He job is to fend off other lions and hyenas. His roar is a sign of his strength and dominance. “The cub howls” brings a picture of a little whiney thing totally dependent upon the pride for anything and everything. Its job is to survive. His howl is a sign of weakness.
“Teeth are broken” brings to mind the old helpless individual that is too far gone to even eat. They starve to death, and it is a long, slow, ugly, painful process. No one wants that, but unless they are killed in battle with another lion or picked off by hyenas, this is their fate. Not a great outcome, either way.
All versions discussed the roar of the lion, but the Hebrew language has more words for lion that does English and it starts to get confusing real quick, especially with some disagreement over the underlying Hebrew. In place of “the cub howls”, alternatives included “the voice of the fierce lion”, “and growl”, “listen, the lion”, “the maned beast sound”, and “the fierce beast cries”. Quite an array of options that would seem to interfere with understanding the message God is trying to provide. My guess is that “fierce” and “the maned beast” have been guessed at and the preferred use of “cub” results not so much from translation as from understanding the context the word sits in. The “and growl” seems to simply leave out the word altogether. “Listen! the lion” seems to be the Poet having fun with no clear path. “Great” was selected from “young”, “king of beasts”, leaving it out, or “the whelps.” In the context, great seemed more all-encompassing and correct. “Broken” was selected from ”cracked”, “smashed”, and “shattered” none of which are hugely different.
11 – “The mighty lion” brings to mind the image of a great cat at the top of the food chain. But in reality, male lions hang with the pride as long as the leader lets them and then most go off to starve to death unable to hunt on their own. It is the rare male who can hunt well enough to survive and then grow to challenge the older lion as it ages. Lions seem mighty, but life is hard for them too. Hence, they perish with no food, just like everyone else.
“The young of the lioness scatter” is beyond me. There is the hint that when the old guy dies everyone goes their separate ways, but the image I have is of the lioness’s killing, the old guy eating and if he doesn’t eat, the rest of them starve first. Maybe it simply means the young die along the journey as they seek food, but that is pretty morbid. Maybe it simply means the old one chases away the larger males if he is not getting enough to eat. This seems correct, but it does not seem like the meat of a two-verse set to simple say the king eats before the others.
“The mighty lion” was also “the strong lion,”, “the old lion”, “the lion”, and “the king of beasts”. “Mighty” just seemed more impressive. “Perishes” was also “dies” which makes sense, but it also was “wanders” which fits in with the whole looking for prey theme. I preferred the perishing (obviously), but maybe I missed the mark. “Young” could have been “cubs” (which I used before) or “whelps” (which is accurate), but I felt “young” was more inclusive. Interestingly enough, “scattered” was unanimous.
Overall, I think the two verses fit well together. I still have trouble understanding how the great scholars of the past divvied up chapters and verses the way they did. Maybe I just have a lot more to learn.
I have no idea how this applies to Job. His kids are gone and yes, he has no riches to feast on, but he still can eat and maybe even overcome his pain to continue living. Maybe something else will hinge on these verses later to make them more useful. Hopefully that is all made clear someday. The next few verses where Eliphaz tries to make his dreams/nightmares make sense, I feel have some play on the lion that I do not yet comprehend.