Ezekiel 22:25

22:25 Her princes ¹  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ²  within it.

Daniel 6:24

6:24 The king gave another order, ³  and those men who had maliciously accused ⁴  Daniel were brought and thrown ⁵  into the lions’ den – they, their children, and their wives. ⁶  They did not even reach the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

Hosea 13:8

13:8 I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs –

I will rip open their chests.

I will devour them there like a lion –

like a wild animal would tear them apart.

¹ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

² tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

³ tn Aram “said.”

⁴ tn Aram “had eaten the pieces of.” The Aramaic expression is ironic, in that the accusers who had figuratively “eaten the pieces of Daniel” are themselves literally devoured by the lions.

⁵ tn The Aramaic active impersonal verb is often used as a substitute for the passive.

⁶ tc The LXX specifies only the two overseers, together with their families, as those who were cast into the lions’ den.