The wolf
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Isa. 11:6) — a wild, fierce, predatory animal, resembling a dog in size and appearance, belonging to the canine family, and the most terrible enemy of sheep (Isa. 65:25; Matt. 7:15, and elsewhere). The patriarch Jacob, in his dying prophecy over his sons, compares the rapacity of the tribe of Benjamin to the rapacity of a wolf: “Benjamin,” he foretold, “shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil” (Gen. 49:27). Sacred writers also compare the cruelty of Israel’s persecutors to the ferocity of a wolf (Ezek. 22:27).