(even a poor man had grown up with me as if I were his father, and even though I had guided the widow from the time I was born),

Their children grow up while they're alive, and they live to see their grandchildren.

Their young are strong; they grow up in the open field; then they go off and don't return to them."

"The lioness may roar, and the lion cub may growl; but even the ivory teeth of the full grown lion are broken.

Full grown lions die when they cannot find prey; that's when the lion cubs are scattered.

Even if its roots have grown ancient in the earth, and its stump begins to rot in the ground,

My eyes have grown weak from grief; and my whole body is as thin as a shadow.