“Lions in Israel!” I texted my daughter while visiting the country.
As expected, she laughed.
Lions in “wherever” is a running joke in my family.
Whenever we see one depicted somewhere, we call out “Lion!”
(I usually then take a photo.)
All the same, I was surprised at how frequently they turned up during a recent trip.
And curiously, I caught sight of them in the south around Jerusalem. I didn’t see any in the Galilee region.
When could you find lions in Israel?
From an earlier post, I knew lions roamed the countryside before Jesus arrived.
They lived in the forests, mountain caves, in the desert, and along the banks of the Jordan River.
Known as Asiatic lions, they ran into the Crusaders about the 12th century and went extinct.
In the Middle East in general, lions survived in the wild until the 20th century.
They generally weighed about 400 pounds when full grown and today can be found wild only in Indian state of Gujarat.
As it turns out, Jerusalem’s Biblical zoo has an Asiatic lion cub this year.
Lions in the Bible
Lions are featured regularly throughout the Bible, both in symbolism as well as historical reference.
- Samson killed a lion with his bare hands on a journey to Timnah in the Philistine territory (Judges 14).
- David killed a lion while protecting his father’s flocks in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17:34-36).
- A lion killed a disobedient prophet (1Kings 13:20-27).
- You’re familiar with Daniel’s visit to the lions’ den? (Daniel 6:16-24)
Lions are, in fact, referenced over 150 times in the Hebrew Bible.
But why?
You, perhaps, have heard of the Lion of Judah on the throne? (Revelation 5:4-6)
Judah is a lion’s whelp; From my prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches, he lies down as a lion,
And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
Genesis 49:9
Museum Antiquities
The Israel Museum has many depictions of lions throughout their archaeological wing.
We saw them depicted in displays of idols, to warn off visitors, and in ceremonial drinking cups.
The lion is a symbol of the Jews and it appears as the coat of arms to the city of Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem sewer covers sport them as well!
The current living lions in Israel?
Cats.
They roam freely throughout the country.
We saw many in Tel Aviv, and asked a resident about all the cats.
She explained they were taken care of and allowed to roam freely. Most were spayed, but even on the Temple Mount we met a mama cat with a nursing kitten.
According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, two million cats roamed the streets in 2021, with an estimated 300,000 in Jerusalem alone.
In Israel, feral cats are said to be as common as squirrels in the US, and their presence is a defining characteristic of everyday life in the Jewish state.
Brought by the British in the 20th century to deal with Mandatory Palestine’s rat problem, the population of cats in Israel has since skyrocketed,
Jerusalem Post, August 8, 2021
In the fall of 2021, the Israeli government budget allotted $4 million to handle stray cats.
You see them everywhere in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, length of tails, and colors–though it seemed to us black and white cats predominated.
I was surprised to encounter them greeting tourists in Jerusalem’s Upper Room.
And, you can always walk through the Lion’s Gate into Jerusalem’s old city.
Tweetables
Where can you see lions in Israel? Everywhere! Click to Tweet
Lions in Israel: historic and those with a modern meow. Click to Tweet
Way back when and way back me
(don’t know how dear wife endured);
hearing ’bout Christianity
I thought t’were leopards that Christ cured.
Maybe some, they had no spots
(but shoulda had ’em, it is written!)
so kids could play connect-the-dots
while avoiding being bitten.
And so The Big J raised His hand,
and said, “You cats be healed, RIGHT NOW!”
and spotty leopards roamed the land,
each with his happiest meow
as Jesus turned, eyes rollin’, sighin’,
when Judas brought his mane-less lion.
How very interesting, Michelle. I knew of many of the biblical lion references, but goodness, the number of stray cats in Jerusalem is astounding! Glad you had a chance to see this!
We were really surprised. In Tel Aviv, they all seemed to be black and white cats–thus, probably related to each other–which is what first caught our attention. We then asked a friend who lives there who explained the government funds feline care to the tune of millions of dollars–which was a surprise. We saw no fleas, and one member of our party commented that the need for litter boxes didn’t seem obvious to him–at least in Jerusalem, which is also odd.