Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 28:15
[As] a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; [so is] a wicked ruler over the poor people.
15. ranging ] i.e. with a view to satisfy its hunger. The word is used in its secondary sense, hungry, Psa 107:9. Comp. 1Pe 5:8. , LXX., ursus esuriens, Vulg.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The form of political wretchedness, when the poverty of the oppressed subjects not only embitters their sufferings, but exasperates the brutal ferocity of the ruler.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The lion and
bear are always cruel and greedy in their natures, and especially when they are hungry and want prey, in which case the lions roar, Psa 104:21; Isa 31:4, and bears range about for it.
So is a wicked ruler; instead of being a nursing father, and a faithful and tender shepherd, as he ought to be, he is a cruel and insatiable oppressor and devourer of them:
Over the poor people; whom he particularly mentions, either to note his policy in oppressing them only who were unable to withstand him, or to revenge themselves of him; or to aggravate his sin in devouring them, whom the laws of God and common humanity bound him to relieve and protect; or to express the effect of his ill government, in making his people poor by his frauds and rapines.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. The rapacity and cruelty ofsuch beasts well represent some wicked men (compare Psa 7:2;Psa 17:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[As] a roaring lion, and a ranging bear,…. Which are both terrible; the lion that roars for want of food, or when it is over its prey; and the hear, when it runs from place to place in quest of provision, being “hungry [and very] desirous” of food, has a keen appetite, as some think the word l signifies. The Targum and Jarchi take it to be expressive of the cry and roaring it makes at such a time, as well as the lion; see Isa 59:11; so the Tigurine version. “Roaring” is the proper epithet of a lion, and is frequently given it in Scripture, and in other writers m; and the bear, it is to have its name, in the Oriental language, from the growling and murmuring noise it makes when hungry; hence that of Horace n;
[so is] a wicked ruler over the poor people; one that rules over them in a tyrannical manner, sadly oppresses them, takes away the little from them they have, which is very cruel and barbarous; when he ought to protect and defend them, against whom they cannot stand, and whom they dare not resist; and who therefore must be as terrible to them, being as cruel and voracious as the above animals. Tyrants are frequently compared to lions, Jer 4:7; and the man of sin, the wicked ruler and great oppressor of God’s poor people, is compared to both; his feet are as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, Re 13:2.
l “avidus”, Pagninus, Montanus; “famelicus”, Castalio, Schultens; “esuriens”, V. L. Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Bochart; “adpetens”, Michaelis. m “Leo fremit”, Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 16. “Spumat aper, fluit unda, fremit leo, sibilat anguis”; Licentius de Protheo. n “Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile”, Epod. Ode 16. v. 51.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This general ethical proverb is now followed by one concerning the king:
15 A roaring lion and a ravening bear
Is a foolish ruler over a poor people,
i.e., a people without riches and possessions, without lasting sources of help – a people brought low by the events of war and by calamities. To such a people a tyrant is a twofold terror, like a ravenous monster. The lxx translate by , as if had been transferred to this place from Pro 28:3. But their translation of , Pro 29:7, wavers between and , and of the bear they make a wolf , dialectical . designates a bear as lingering about, running hither and thither, impelled by extreme hunger ( Venet. ), from = , to drive, which is said of nimble running, as well as of urging impulses (cf. under Gen 3:16), viz., hunger.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15 As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.
It is written indeed, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people; but if he be a wicked ruler, that oppresses the people, especially the poor people, robbing them of the little they have and making a prey of them, whatever we may call him, this scripture calls him a roaring lion and a ranging bear. 1. In respect of his character. He is brutish, barbarous, and blood-thirsty; he is rather to be put among the beasts of prey, the wildest and most savage, than to be reckoned of that noble rank of beings whose glory is reason and humanity. 2. In respect of the mischief he does to his subjects. He is dreadful as the roaring lion, who makes the forest tremble; he is devouring as a hungry bear, and the more necessitous he is the more mischief he does and the more greedy of gain he is.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Misuse of Authority
Verse 15 portrays the destructive attitude of wicked rulers or superiors toward defenseless poor as like that of a ferocious lion or bear. Similar illustrations in Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2; Dan 7:1-8; and specific statements in Exo 1:14; Exo 1:16; Exo 1:22 and Luk 22:24-25 reveal that the LORD takes careful note of such oppression.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 28:16. Ewald, Zckler, Delitzsch, and others read this verse, O prince devoid of understanding, he that hateth unjust gain continueth long.
Pro. 28:17. First clause. A man laden with the blood of a soul.
Pro. 28:18. Perverse ways. Rather double ways.
Pro. 28:21. Zckler reads the last clause, And (yet) even for a piece of bread (many) a man will transgress
Pro. 28:22. Rather The man of an evil eye hasteth, etc.
Pro. 28:23. Delitzsch reads this verse, He that reproveth a man that is going backwards, etc.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 28:15-17
VICE AND VIRTUE IN HIGH PLACES
I. A cruel ruler is on a level with the most cruel of the brute creation. The more power a man holds in his hand over the destinies of his fellow-creatures the greater is his responsibility, and the blacker is his crime if he abuses his opportunities of blessing them. In proportion to the unlimited character of his authority ought to be his care not to overstep the limits of the strictest justice, and he is bound to lean rather to the side of mercy than to severity. The less reason he has to fear any retaliation from those whom he rules, the more is he bound to mingle much gentleness and forbearance with his government, for it is the act of a coward to act towards the weak and defenceless as we should fear to act towards one who is our equal in strength. The man who can be capable of such cowardice no longer deserves the name of a man, but puts himself on a level with those beasts of prey from whom we shrink in terror, knowing that in them there is no reason, or conscience, or pity to which we can appeal.
II. Incapacity in a ruler may work almost as much misery as cruelty. A mother may not be guilty of positive acts of cruelty towards her children, and yet they may suffer very keenly and very seriously from her unfitness to train their souls and her ignorance as to how to take care of their bodies. Her neglect may in the end bring consequences as fatal as the greatest severity would have done. This rule holds good wherever one human creature has others dependent upon him, and the more entire the dependence the more miserable will be the results of his or her incapacity. In countries where rulers do not bear absolute sway, a prince who wanteth understanding is not so great a curse as where his will is the only or the supreme law, but the history of our own country contains instances of monarchs who, although they would have been harmless in private life, were, from lack of capacity to rule, very great oppressors of the people.
III. The curse which rests upon all such oppressors of their kind. Like Jehoram of old, they depart undesired. (2Ch. 21:20). The blood of their brothers crieth out for vengeance upon their heads, and no man puts forth a hand to arrest their doom. Even those who pity as well as blame, if they wish well to the body politic, feel it is a blessing when such tyrants are removed from the earthwhen their power of doing violence to the rights of their fellow-creatures is at an end. Let no man stay him for the sake of those whom he leaves behind, and let no man hinder his departure for his own sake, for his continuance in his place upon the earth would but give him opportunity to add to his crimes, and thus increase the weight of his punishment. (For illustrations of this subject and additional Homiletics see on chap. Pro. 11:17, page 220also page 208.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 28:15. But these emblems were insufficient to represent the monstrous barbarities that have been often exercised by those that were at the head of the Roman empire in its pagan or antichristian state; and, therefore, Daniel and John represent them under the figure of monsters more dreadful than any that were ever beheld by the eyes of man. (Jer. 31:18; Dan. 7:10; Revelation 13) The language of inspiration could not furnish out more terrible images for the devil himself, than those which have been used to represent the wickedness of tyrannical and persecuting powers. We ought to be thankful for the wounds that have been given to the beast with seven heads and ten horns, and for the civil and religious liberties which we enjoy.Lawson.
Pro. 28:16. As want of understanding maketh a man an oppressor, so to be an oppressor sheweth a want of understanding in him. But the special want at which the verse seems to aim is the greedy want of covetousness. For as a covetous man wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so eagerly which he cannot keep, so a covetous prince wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so earnestly which he hath already.Jermin.
Pro. 28:17. Gods jealous regard for the life of man was strongly expressed at the second outset of our worlds history; and expressed in terms of evident allusion to the early and awful violation of its sacredness in the antediluvian period:And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man (Gen. 9:5-6). For my own part, having examined the various principles of interpretation by which those who are for doing away all capital punishments have explained these words, I have not been able to satisfy myself with any one of them. They seem to be all forced and unnatural, and, on different critical grounds, inadmissible. I cannot but regard the language as bearing no fair and natural interpretation, but that which makes it a Divine requisition, on the part of man, of blood for bloodthat is, of life for life; and as thus affording more than a sanction, as laying down a requirement. Though I am far from conceiving that we are bound by Jewish criminal law, yet in the law regarding murder there is so evident an allusion to this original and universal injunction, and the language withal is so very pointed and emphatically reiterated, that I cannot go the length of those who would include murder among crimes to be punished with infliction short of death. When set beside the original and universal law it serves, by its very emphasis and peremptoriness, to confirm the ordinary interpretation of that charge to the second progenitors of our race as the just one, and to show, therefore, the universality of its obligation.Wardlaw.
Even the heathen judged this awful transgressor to be under the Divine vengeance. (Act. 28:4.) The death therefore of the murderer is an imperative obligation. It is miscalled philanthropy that protests against all capital punishments. Shall man pretend to be more merciful than God? Pity is misplaced here. The murderer therefore of his brother is his own murderer.Bridges.
This is not directly an admonition against that which is immoral; it may also be a declaration of that which is impossible.Delitzsch.
The subjects of the next six verses have all been treated before. For Homiletics on Pro. 28:18, see on chaps. Pro. 10:9 and Pro. 11:3, pages 153 and 195. Pro. 28:19 is almost a verbal repetition of chap. Pro. 12:11, see page 266. On the main subject of Pro. 28:20; Pro. 28:22, see on chaps. Pro. 13:11 and Pro. 21:5, pages 306 and 609. On Pro. 28:21 see on chap. Pro. 17:23, page 524, and on Pro. 28:23 chap. Pro. 27:5-6, page 728.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(15) A ranging beari.e., wandering hungrily in great want of food.
Over the poor peoplei.e., a people too weak to resist him, over whom he can tyrannise without fear.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Roaring lion The word represents the growling of a lion and other like beast when they have seized their prey, rather than their “roaring” on other occasions. This peculiar growl may be observed in the common cat. It seems expressive of the fierce pleasure of possession.
Ranging bear Rather, hungry, or raging with hunger. The imagery is very vivid, and well represents the rapacity of greedy rulers and office bearers, who make a prey of the helpless people. The picture is eminently Oriental; but, alas! not entirely unsuitable to the Occident.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 28:15. A ranging bear A howling bear. Houbigant. Pro 28:16. The prince that wanteth understanding] The sense and opposition is better preserved in the LXX: A prince who is straitened in his revenues is generally a great oppressor; but he, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.
If the Reader will go diligently over the whole chapter, and read the several parts of it with an eye to Jesus, I venture to assure him that in many places, where he might be at first led to suppose there was least of Christ, he would still find somewhat leading to him. Surely it is blessed to be always upon the look out for him. And if we have but a glimpse of the king in his beauty; if we behold but his shade as he passeth by, it will be an ample recompence to our utmost diligence. Isa 33:17 ; Pro 8:17 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 28:15 [As] a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; [so is] a wicked ruler over the poor people.
Ver. 15. As a roaring llon, and a ranging bear. ] Regimen without righteousness turns into tyranny, and becomes no better than robbery by authority. a Look how the lion frightens the poor beasts with his roaring, so that they have no power to stir, and then preys upon them with his teeth; and as the bear searches them out and tears them limb from limb: so deal tyrants with their poor subjects. “Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.” Zep 3:3 Such were those cannibals in David’s days, that “eat up God’s people as they eat bread”; Psa 14:4 such those miscreants in Micah, who did eat the flesh of God’s people, and flayed their skin, that brake their bones, and chopped them in pieces as for the pot. Mic 3:3-7 Much like those American cannibals, who, when they take a prisoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees, cutting off from his body now a meal and then a meal, which they roast before his eyes, searing up the wounded place with a firebrand to staunch the blood, to the unutterable aggravation of his horror and torment. Such a lion rampant was Nero; “I was delivered,” saith St Paul, “out of the mouth of the lion.” 2Ti 4:17 Tertullian calls him the dedicator of the condemnation of the Christians; whom he used as badly almost as the Spaniards at this day do the poor Indians, under pretence of converting them to the faith. Their own writers tell us that within forty years twenty-seven million people were killed, and that with such cruelties as never were heard of before. Let every good man bless himself out of the paws and jaws of these bloody Catholics, more savage and fierce than the wild beasts, as they soon show when armed with power, as were easy to instance. See the Babylonian cruelty graphically described, Jer 51:34 , and see whether it be not matched and over matched by mystical Babylon. The ranging lion and ravening bear is nothing to that man of sin that hath dyed all Christendom with the blood of God’s saints, and dunged it with their carcases. This ostrich can digest any metal, especially money: witness his incredible exactions here in England, anciently called the Pope’s ass. This cannibal is a pickerel in a pond, or shark in the sea, devours the poorer, as they the lesser fishes: not unlike that cruel prince mentioned by Melanchthon, who, to get money from his miserable subjects, used to send for them, and if they refused to furnish him with such sums of money as he demanded, he would first knock out one of their teeth, and then another, threatening to leave them none at all.
a Latrocinium cum privilegio.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
roaring = growling while devouring his prey, not roaring (as he springs upon it).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 28:15
Pro 28:15
“As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear, So is a wicked ruler over a poor people.”
Israel had their wicked rulers such as Ahab, Manasseh and many others; but the current century has seen a parade of evil rulers just as wicked and far more powerful; and any people with such a ruler is a “poor” people.
Pro 28:15. The next two verses have to do with kings as do a number of verses in Proverbs. The Hebrews own history contained a classic example of a wicked ruler (Pharaoh) over a poor people (when he had them in Egyptian bondage). First the Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor (Exo 1:14). But that wasnt enough, so Pharaoh said to the Egyptian midwives, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him (Exo 1:16). And when he saw that that wasnt working, he issued this order to the Hebrew people themselves: Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river (Exo 1:22). Wicked King Herod, who killed at will throughout his reign, was like a roaring lion and a ranging bear when he sent forth, and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under (Mat 2:16).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a roaring: Pro 20:2, Hos 5:11, 1Pe 5:8
a ranging: Pro 17:12, 2Ki 2:24, Hos 13:8
so: Exo 1:14-16, Exo 1:22, 1Sa 22:17-19, 2Ki 15:16, 2Ki 21:16, Est 3:6-10, Mat 2:16
Reciprocal: 1Sa 22:16 – Thou shalt 1Sa 23:10 – destroy the city 2Sa 17:8 – as a bear Psa 10:9 – when Psa 57:4 – among Pro 19:12 – king’s Ecc 4:1 – and considered Ecc 4:13 – is a poor Isa 33:6 – wisdom Eze 19:7 – and the land Eze 32:2 – Thou art like Dan 2:13 – the decree Zep 3:3 – princes 2Ti 4:17 – and I Rev 13:2 – and his feet
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 28:15. As a roaring lion and a ranging bear Always cruel and greedy in their natures, and especially so when they are hungry and want prey; in which case the lions roar, and bears range about for it; so is a wicked ruler Instead of being a nursing father, and a faithful and tender shepherd, as he ought to be, he is a cruel and insatiable oppressor of his subjects; over the poor people Whom he particularly mentions to aggravate this wicked rulers sin, in devouring them whom the laws of God and common humanity bound him to relieve and protect; or to express the effect of his bad government, in making the people poor by his frauds and rapines.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
28:15 [As] a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; [so is] {h} a wicked ruler over the poor people.
(h) For he can never be satisfied but always oppresses and spoils.