The enemy attack is now likened to that of a lion capturing its prey.

Their roaring is like a lion: The sound of the advancing army is as loud and threatening as that of a roaring lion. Lions usually roar after they have captured their prey. They do it to frighten other beasts away. This line pictures a fearsome noise because the lion’s roar produces more than noise, it terrifies. People who do not live near lions or large man-eating animals do not always perceive the instinctive fear that comes with this picture of a roaring lion. Lion translates a Hebrew word that probably means “female lion.” This adds to the parallelism here by having a lioness used in this line with killer lions mentioned in the next line.

Like young lions they roar continues the image of a loud and fearsome roar. Young lions should not be translated “baby lions,” because then the image of roaring loudly would not make much sense. The Hebrew word for young lions is better rendered “killer lions.” The full emotional impact of the first two lines may be hinted at by saying “The sound of the army will cause terror like the roar of killer lions.”

They growl and seize their prey describes the action of a lion after it has captured its prey. These actions describe how the people of Judah will be treated after their enemies capture them. Growl in English is often associated with the noise dogs make. Translators should make sure they choose a verb that can be associated with lions, and not one restricted to the noise made by domestic animals. Seize may be rendered “grab” or “catch.” Good News Translation has “killed,” but it is better not to use this verb here. Translators should look at the next line of this couplet before making a final decision.

They carry it off, and none can rescue: After lions capture their prey, they carry it away. This compares a lion’s treatment of the animal it has grabbed to the way the Assyrians captured the Israelites of the northern kingdom and took them into exile. Isaiah warns it is a similar fate that will befall the southern kingdom of Judah. The clause none can rescue means that nobody can save the people from the enemy.

These lines are quite clear and should not present a problem. If they do pose a challenge, it will be in those languages where it is unnatural to apply images like these to an army. In such a rare case translators may say the noise and the activities of the invading enemy army are being described in this figurative way (see the following example).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• The sound they make is as frightening as that of a roaring lioness,
or like that of killer lions that roar;
they growl like a lion that has seized its prey
and that carries it off to somewhere,
to a place where no one can come to the rescue.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .