Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 17:12

Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

12. 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 whelps, became a proverb (2Sa 17:8).” Pusey on Hos 13:8.

rather than ] Lit. and not.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Pro 17:12

Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

The cruelty of fools

The rage of wild beasts is short-lived, and their power is circumscribed within narrow limits. Man has more cause to dread his brother than all the beasts of the forest. Ambition, jealousy, and superstition are sad sources of cruelty. We all abhor the deeds of cruelty which the fool in his folly so frequently commits; but alas! we have not all an adequate estimate of the guilt attaching to the man at the moment, and in the act of entering into his folly. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps] At which times such animals are peculiarly fierce. 2Sa 17:8.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Robbed of her whelps, when she is most cruel and fierce.

In his folly; in the heat of his lust or passion, because the danger is greater, all things considered, and more unavoidable.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. They are less rational inanger than wild beasts.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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 been at great pains to lick into shape and form, by which her fondness to them is increased; and therefore, being stripped of them, is full of rage; and ranging about in quest of them, falls furiously upon the first she meets with. Jerom n observes, that those who have written of the nature of beasts say, that, among all wild beasts, there is none more fierce than a she bear, when she has lost her whelps, or wants food. And yet, as terrible and as dangerous as it is, it is safer and more eligible of the two, to meet an enraged bear in those circumstances,

rather than a fool in his folly; in the height of his folly, in a paroxysm or fit of that; in the heat of his lusts, and the pursuit of them, in which there is no stopping him, or turning him from them; especially in the heat of passion and anger, which exceeds that of a bear, and is not so easily avoided. Jarchi applies it to such fools as seduce persons to idolatry, whom to meet is very dangerous: such are the followers of the man of sin, who have no mercy on the souls of men they deceive, and whose damnation they are the cause of; and who are implacably cruel to those who will not join with them in their idolatrous worship; the beast of Rome, his feet are as the feet of a bear, Re 13:2; and one had better meet a bear than him and his followers.

n Comment, in Hos. xiii. 8. So Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 18.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

12 Meet a bear robbed of one of her whelps,

Only not a fool in his folly.

The name of the bear, as that of the cow, Job 21:10; Psa 144:14, preserves its masculine form, even when used in reference to sexual relationship (Ewald, 174b); the ursa catulis orbata is proverbially a raging beast. How the abstract expression of the action [to meet], here as e.g., Psa 17:5, with the subj. following, must sound as finite ( occurrat , may always meet), follows from = ( non autem occurrat ). has on the last syllable Mehuppach, and Zinnorith on the preceding open syllable (according to the rule, Accentssystem, vi. 5d).

(Note: In the Torath Emeth, p. 18, the word is irregularly represented as Milel – a closed syllable with Cholem can suffer no retrogression of the tone.)

, in the state of his folly, i.e., when he is in a paroxysm of his anger, corresponds with the conditional noun-adjective , for folly morbidly heightened is madness (cf. Hos 11:7; Psychol. p. 291f.).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

      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 rests and in whose countenance anger rages. He has put off man, and is become like a bear, a raging bear, a bear robbed of her whelps; he is as fond of the gratifications of his lusts and passions as a bear of her whelps (which, though ugly, are her own), as eager in the pursuit of them as she is in quest of her whelps when they are missing, and as full of indignation if crossed in the pursuit. 2. He is a dangerous man, falls foul of every one that stands in his way, though innocent, though his friend, as a bear robbed of her whelps sets upon the first man she meets as the robber. Ira furor brevis est–Anger is temporary madness. One may more easily stop, escape, or guard against an enraged bear, than an outrageous angry man. Let us therefore watch over our own passions (lest they get head and do mischief) and so consult our own honour; and let us avoid the company of furious men, and get out of their way when they are in their fury, and so consult our own safety. Currenti cede furori–Give place unto wrath.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary