A lion cub Judah is. From the prey, my son, you will certainly go up. He bowed down, he stretched himself out like a lion and, like a lion, who dares rouse him?

Genesis 49:8-10.

23. All those features, scepter, commander’s staff, obedience of the peoples, comparison with a lion, bespeak what for Judah?

²³ Let us note Jacob’s comparison of Judah with a lion. Micah 5:8 likens a lion to an animal king of the forest. Ezekiel 19:1-9 likens the kings of the kingdom of Judah to lions. So Jacob’s comparison of Judah with a lion goes well with the fact that the scepter was not to “turn aside from Judah,” this implying that Judah already had the scepter and would not lose it or be deprived of it.