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Bible Dictionaries
Bear
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or BEAR ( dôb ). The Syrian bear ( Ursus syriacus , Arab. [Note: Arabic.] dûbb ) is still fairly common in Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon, and is occasionally found in the Lebanon and east of the Jordan; it is practically extinct in Palestine. It is smaller and of a lighter colour than the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ). It is a somewhat solitary animal, eating vegetables, fruit, and honey, but, when hungry, attacking sheep ( 1 Samuel 17:34-36 ) and occasionally, but very rarely, to-day at any rate, human beings ( 2 Kings 2:24 ). The fierceness of a bear robbed of her whelps ( 2 Samuel 17:8 , Proverbs 17:12 , Hosea 13:8 ) is well known. Next to the lion, the bear was considered the most dangerous of animals to encounter ( Proverbs 28:15 ), and that it should be subdued was to be one of the wonders of the Messiah’s kingdom ( Isaiah 11:7 ).
E. W. G. Masterman.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Bear'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/b/bear.html. 1909.
