Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them. A leopard keeps watch over their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.

"As for you, you are to prophesy all these things to them, and say to them: The LORD roars from on high; He raises His voice from His holy dwelling. He roars loudly over His grazing land; He calls out with a shout, like those who tread [grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth.

Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; this last who has crunched his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly a young lion came roaring at him,

The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the fangs of young lions are broken.

I am in the midst of lions; I lie down with those who devour men. Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongues are sharp swords.

Their roaring is like a lion's; they roar like young lions; they growl and seize their prey and carry [it] off, and no one can rescue [it].

For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. Yes, I will tear [them] to pieces and depart. I will carry [them] off, and no one can rescue [them].

They will follow the LORD; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.

So I will be like a lion to them; I will lurk like a leopard on the path.

I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs and tear open the rib cage over their hearts. I will devour them there like a lioness, like a wild beast that would rip them open.

Does a lion roar in the forest when it has no prey? Does a young lion growl from its lair unless it has captured [something]?

A lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who will not prophesy?

The LORD says: As the shepherd snatches two legs or a piece of an ear from the lion's mouth, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be rescued with [only] the corner of a bed or the cushion of a couch.

Where is the lions' lair, or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled, and the lion's cub, with nothing to frighten them away?

Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire; before your very eyes foreigners devour your fields-- a desolation overthrown by foreigners.

Look, the LORD is stripping the earth bare and making it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:

"I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

A lion has gone up from his thicket; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to make your land a waste. Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals' den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, an uninhabited place.

How dare you prophesy in the name of the LORD, 'This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin'!" Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah at the LORD's temple.

"This is what the LORD says: In this place which you say is a ruin, without man or beast-- that is, in Judah's cities and Jerusalem's streets that are a desolation without man, without inhabitant, and without beast-- there will be heard again

I am about to give the command"-- [this is] the LORD's declaration-- "and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make Judah's cities a desolation, without inhabitant."

The LORD can no longer bear your evil deeds and the detestable acts you have committed, so your land has become a waste, a desolation, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as [you see] today.

In my hearing the LORD of Hosts [has taken an oath]: Indeed, many houses will become desolate, grand and lovely ones without inhabitants.

Then I said, "Until when, Lord?" And He replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate,

Their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the LORD's wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy. For He will make a complete, yes, a horrifying end of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast, nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines: I will destroy you until there is no one left.

I have cut off nations; their corner towers are destroyed. I have laid waste their streets, with no one to pass through. Their cities lie devastated, without a person, without an inhabitant.