Abstract
The conceptual metaphor, 'GOD IS KING', is presented in the Old Testament Canon texts as a condensed structure which is represented in the full complexes of the knowledge/experiences of God and His relationship with His people. This metaphor testifies to how the author/authors of biblical texts understood/tried to understand God, and how they formulated their religious experience.
In Lam. 3:1-24 this experience is very specific, complex and internally conflictual; the metaphorical meaning in the Hebrew text takes shape in the process of blending several royal and non-royal conceptual metaphors. The concept of God is conceptualized through the interactions of man with a military invasion through beasts of prey (a lion and a bear) through the experience of hunger thirst and the loss of home and security etc.
It is in these interactions that conceptual metaphors conjure up similarities between the purely physical experience and the spiritual experience."