The young lions have roared at him; they have growled with a loud voice. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.

The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.

No lion will be there, and no vicious beast will go up on it. Such will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk upon it.

Where is the lions’ lair or the feeding ground of the young lions, where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs, with nothing to frighten them away? The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will send your chariots up in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.