Bible Strands
Numbers 23:24
Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Balaam addresses King Balak during a prophetic oracle, describing Israel’s advance immediately after declaring that no divination can counter Jacob. The statement occurs in the moment when Balak realizes his attempts to secure a curse have failed.
The words — The phrase לֹא יִשְׁכַּב (lo' yish.Kav) translates literally as “not it will lie down,” paired with יִתְנַשֵּׂא (yit.na.Sa') meaning “it lifts itself up.” These verbs frame the lion imagery as active, unceasing motion rather than static rest.
The thread — The lion motif recurs in Genesis 49:9 for Judah and Genesis 49:27 for Benjamin, while Numbers 24:8 extends the devouring imagery to God’s own strength against hostile nations.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Israel’s progress operates beyond human curses or divination, requiring the reader to account for divine empowerment as the sole driver of their unstoppable advance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.
Cross-references
- Genesis 49:27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”
- Genesis 49:9 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?
- Numbers 24:8 God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.
- Numbers 24:17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.
- Zechariah 12:6 On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.
- Revelation 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
- Deuteronomy 33:20 Concerning Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges the domain of Gad! He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or a head.
- Psalms 17:12 like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
- Proverbs 30:30 a lion, mighty among beasts, refusing to retreat before anything;
- Isaiah 31:4 For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.