Albert Barnes Commentary Job 4:10

"The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions, are broken." — Job 4:10 (ASV)

The roaring of the lion - This is evidently a continuation of the argument in the preceding verses, and Eliphaz is stating what he had observed. The expressions are quite proverbial and are designed to convey in strong poetic language what he supposed usually happened. There can be no reasonable doubt here that he refers to people in these verses, for:

1. It is not true that the lion is destroyed in this manner. Calamity does not befall him more frequently than other animals, and perhaps he is overcome less often than others.
2. Only such a supposition would make Eliphaz’s remarks pertinent to his argument. He is speaking of the divine government concerning wicked people, and he uses this language to convey the idea that they are often destroyed.
3. It is common in the Scriptures, as in all Oriental writings, and indeed in Greek and Roman poetry, to compare unjust, cruel, and rapacious people with wild animals (see the notes at Isaiah 11:0; Psalms 58:6).

Eliphaz, therefore, by using the words translated as "lion," means to say that people of savage temper, cruel dispositions, and untamed ferocity were cut off by God's judgments.

It is remarkable that he uses so many words to designate the lion in these two verses. No less than five are used, all of them probably originally denoting some special and striking characteristics of the lion.

This also illustrates the richness of the Hebrew language in this respect and is an example of the way of speaking in Arabia.

The Arabic language is so rich that the Arabs boast they have four hundred terms to designate the lion. Many of them are, indeed, figurative expressions derived from some quality of the animal, but they show a much greater richness in the language than can be found in Western languages.

The words Eliphaz uses here include almost all the terms by which the “lion” is designated in the Scriptures. They are אריה 'aryêh — שׁחל shachal — כפיר kᵉphı̂yr — לישׁ layı̂sh — and לביא lâbı̂y'.

The word שׁחץ shachats, meaning elation or pride, is given to the lion (Job 28:8; Job 41:34) because of its proud gait; and perhaps also the word אריאל 'ărı̂y'êl (1 Samuel 17:10; 1 Chronicles 11:22).

But Eliphaz has exhausted the usual epithets for the lion in the Hebrew language. It may be of some interest to briefly inquire into the meaning of those he has used.

The roaring of the lion - The word used here (אריה 'aryêh), or in a more usual form (ארי 'ărı̂y), is from ארה 'ârâh — to pull, to pluck — and is probably given to the lion as the one who tears apart, because of the way it devours its prey.

Bochart, however, contends that the name is not from ארה because, he says, the lion does not bite or crop its food like grass (which, he says, the word properly means), but is from the verb ראה râ'âh — to see — because, he says, the lion is the most keen-sighted of animals, or rather from the fire of its eyes — the terror that the glance of its eye inspires.

Similarly, the Greeks derive the word lion, λέοντα leonta — from λάω laō — to see.

See Bochart, Hieroz. Lib. iii. c. 1, p. 715.

The voice of the fierce lion - The word translated here as “fierce lion” (שׁחל shı̂chal) is from שׁחל shachal — to roar — and therefore given to a lion for an obvious reason.

Bochart understands it to mean the swarthy lion of Syria, the lion that the Arabians call adlamon.

This lion, he says, is dark and dingy.

The usual color of the lion is yellow, but Oppian says that the lion in Aethiopia is sometimes found with a dark color, μελανόχροος melanochroos (see Bochart, Hieroz. Lib. i. c. 1, p. 717, 718).

The teeth of the young lions - The word used here, כפיר kᵉphı̂yr — means a “young lion already weaned and beginning to hunt for prey” — Gesenius.

It thus differs from גוּר gûr — which means a whelp, still under the care of the dam (compare Bochart, Hieroz. Lib. iii. c. 1, p. 714).

Evidently, some expression is to be understood here that applies to the voice or the roaring of the lion.

Noyes supplies the words, “are silenced.”

The words “are broken” can only apply to the teeth of the young lions.

It is unnatural to say that the “roaring” and the “voice” are broken.

The sense is that the lion roars in vain, and that calamity and destruction come despite its growl. When applied to people, it means that those who resemble the lion are disappointed and punished.