Proverbs 17:12

Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man,.... A bear is a very fierce and furious creature, especially a she bear; and she is still more so when robbed of her whelps, which she has just whelped, and…

The large brown bear of Syria, in her rage at the loss of her whelps, was to the Israelites the strongest type of brute ferocity. Compare 2Sa 17:8; 2Ki 2:24.

Note, 1. A passionate man is a brutish man. However at other times he may have some wisdom, take him in his passion ungoverned, and he is a fool in his folly; those are fools in whose bosom anger…

a bear&c. "The Syrian bear is fiercer than the brown bears to which we are accustomed. It attacks flocks (1Sa 17:34), and even oxen (Plin. viii. 64). The fierceness of the she-bear, bereaved of her…