Behold, a people rises like a lioness, and like a lion lifts itself up; it does not lie down until it eats prey and drinks the blood of the slain.
Bamidbar Rabbah 20:20 — Israel’s rising to mitzvos and to battle.
English: “Behold, a people rises like a lioness” — when they rise from their sleep in the morning they become strong as a lioness and as a lion to seize the mitzvos: to recite the Shema, to wrap themselves in tzitzis, and to put on tefillin.
Homiletic reading of the lion image as morning zeal for mitzvos.
The same power Balak fears in war is the power of Israel’s daily rising to Torah and commandments.