Nahum 2:12

Lions normally kill only what they need to eat, but the Assyrians killed many enemies not just to sustain their own needs but for the joy of conquest. They were unusually vicious toward their enemies and notorious in the ancient world as cruel. [Note: See Pritchard, ed., p. 285; idem, ed., The Ancient Near East in Pictures, p. 373; Feinberg, p. 141; Hobart E. Freeman, Nahum Zephaniah Habakkuk, pp. 36-38; and Maier, pp. 281-83.] Yet lions, while vicious, are not known for being excessively so.