He calls Him then a lion's whelp because of His being born of the royal tribe. For He was of the seed of (b) David according to the flesh. "From a shoot thou hast grown, my son," he says, because He was born of the seed and root of Jacob who foretold it, being primarily God the Word, and becoming secondarily the Son of man, through the dispensation He undertook for us. And the words, "Falling down thou didst sleep as a lion and a whelp," are significant of His Death, because Scripture is accustomed, as is shewn in many other places, from the conviction of their kinship to call death a sleep. And "Who shall awake him?" is a wonderful reference to His Resurrection from the dead. For he who said, "Who will awake him?" (c) knew quite well that He would be awaked. And it is remarkable that he should add, "Who then shall do this and raise him up? "so as to impel us to ask who it was that raised up our Lord Who died on our behalf. For Who else was it, but the God of the Universe, His Father, to Whom the Saviour's Resurrection is solely to be attributed, according to the Scripture which says, "Whom the Father raised from the dead "?