Genesis 49:9
Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
The verse belongs to Jacob's dying inspired prophetic blessing and testimony to his sorrowing sons concerning Judah, foretelling the future of his descendants. He did not speak it from his own unforgiving spirit or from natural affection as a forgiving father who loved his sons to the last and would have uttered only love and tenderness, but God by the spirit of prophecy lifted his mind above paternal feeling, angels were around him in his last hours, the power of God's grace shone upon him, and under inspiration he uttered truth even when painful. Unlike his exposure of God's view of the deeds of violence of Simeon and Levi and His visitation for their sins, his prophetic words to his other sons including Judah were not as gloomy.
It pictures Judah as a lion's cub that has gone up from its prey and then stooped down and couched with the strength and settled power of a mature lion whom no one dares to rouse. That lion is a fitting symbol of the tribe's strength and royal authority.
As part of Jacob's blessing and inspired prophecy on Judah, the verse foreshadows the blessed hope of deliverance through the coming Redeemer, Christ. In this blessing Judah received the kingdom and the Messianic promise. The tribe of Judah produced David and the Son of David, Shiloh, the true Lion of the tribe of Judah, to whom all powers will finally bow and all nations render homage.