Further description of the devil is supplied by the phrase λέων ὡρυόμενος (“roaring lion”). While this is the only
place in the Bible that the devil is so identified, the figure of a lion does
appear in the OT to describe the opponents of Israel, a tradition then also
continued at Qumran. The word used to define the devil’s desired activity, καταπιεῖν (“devour”), has as its normal meaning
“drink down,” but it is also used of an animal swallowing its prey, clearly its
use here. The readers would not have had to live in an area where lions
represented a threat to them to understand the metaphor; lions as beasts of
prey were sufficiently well known that the “adversary as roaring lion” would be
immediately clear. (Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter: A Commentary on
First Peter [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible;
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996], 341)
The devil is not a neutralized foe, but one who is seeking the
destruction of the believer. While the Pastorals describe him as snaring
Christians (1 Tim. 3:7; 2 Tim. 2:26), our author pictures him more aggressively
as a “roaring lion.” The image is surely drawn from Ps. 22:13, “They open their
mouths wide at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.” (Cf. 2 Tim. 4:17.) His prowling around has already been
mentioned in Job 1:7, and it forms an ample basis for alertness, for when a
lion is on the prowl it is no time to sleep.
The goal of the hunt is to find someone to devour. The term “devour” is graphic, meaning “to
drink down.” The picture is one of a beast swallowing its prey in a gulp. For
example, in Jer. 28:34 in the Greek OT (= 51:34 in Hebrew) we read, “He
[Nebuchadnezzar] gulped me down like a dragon; he filled his belly.…” The same
term is used of the fish that swallowed Jonah (Jon. 2:1; cf. Tob. 6:2). This
graphic description pictures the annihilation of the believer that the devil
wishes to achieve. (Peter
H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter [The New International Commentary on
the New Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990], 190-91)
