Den

A den in Scripture typically refers to a cave or hollow in the earth used as a hiding place or dwelling — for animals, for people in distress, or metaphorically for criminals. Lions retire to their dens at dawn (Job 37:8; 38:40; Psalm 104:22), making the den a symbol of wild, dangerous territory. The den of lions into which Daniel was cast (Daniel 6:16–23) is the most famous biblical den, and his miraculous deliverance from it became a paradigmatic example of God's protection of the faithful (Hebrews 11:33). Jesus condemned the money-changers in the temple by citing Jeremiah 7:11 — they had made the house of prayer into a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13). In the Revelation, the hiding of the great and the small in dens and rocks of the mountains (Revelation 6:15) images the terror of the day of wrath.