Genesis 49:9

Judah is as a lion's whelp, or as a young lion, for courage, and strength, and terror to his enemies. The particle as is here wanting, as also Genesis 49:14,17,21,22, and in many other places, as Psalms 11:1, Psalms 12:6 22:6, &c. And he is rightly compared first to a lion's whelp, then to an old lion, to signify the growth of that tribe in strength and interest; and that from small beginnings, and a precedency of order only, Judges 1:1,2, it should ascend to the height of honour, and power, and happiness in David, and especially in the Messiah, who should conquer all nations. From the prey... thou art gone up. Having taken the prey, i.e. conquered thine enemies, thou art gone up in triumph; or gone up, i.e. grown greater and higher after thy victories, as the manner is. Or he alludes to the lions, which usually dwell in mountains, as divers writers observe, and come down to prey in the valleys, and when they have got their prey, they go up to their habitations, and so shall Judah do. He stooped; a change of the person very frequent in prophetical writings, as we shall oft have occasion to note hereafter. He couched. When he hath taken the prey, he doth not convey it away to his den with haste and speed for fear the enemy should return and overtake him, but like a lion he stoops down to feed upon his prey, and coucheth or lieth down securely to rest himself after he hath eaten it, without the least fear of any enemy, as it is observed of him, Isaiah 31:4. Judah's conquests shall not be interrupted or followed with ill successes and defeats or overthrows afterward, as it frequently happens in the course of war, but he quietly possess his spoils, and after the bloody wars, to which he will be forced, shall enjoy a sweet peace and tranquillity, which his posterity did, 1 Kings 4:25. As an old lion, or rather a grown lion, not a decrepit and impotent lion, but one come to his full strength; who shall presume or dare to disturb or provoke him? All shall fear him, and seek peace with him.