Bible Strands
Psalms 104:21
The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the worshiping community while describing the daily cycle that governs animal behavior, specifically the transition from night to day.
The words — כְּפִירִים (kefirim) means young lions, and שֹׁאֲגִים (shoagim) means roaring. מֵאֵל (me'el) literally translates from God, directly linking the animals' hunger to divine provision.
The thread — The dependence of predators on God for sustenance runs through Job 38:39, Joel 1:20, and Psalms 34:10. Each reference ties the survival of wild animals to God's active role in creation.
Why it lands — The text states that young lions actively seek their food from God, requiring the reader to acknowledge natural instinct as a sustained mechanism of provision. It demands recognition that created behavior operates under direct divine oversight.
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
The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
Cross-references
- Job 38:39 Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
- Joel 1:20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.
- Psalms 34:10 Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- Ezekiel 19:2 and say: ‘What was your mother? A lioness among the lions! She lay down among the young lions; she reared her cubs.
- Joel 2:22 Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best.
- Job 38:41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?
- Psalms 145:15 The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Psalms 147:9 He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call.
- 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.
- Joel 1:18 How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.