Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
Parallel Translations
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Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
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Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
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Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Proverbs 17:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Samuel 17:8 Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
- Hosea 13:8 I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
- Proverbs 27:3 A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
- Proverbs 28:15 As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.
- 2 Kings 2:24 He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.
- Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Whereby he meaneth the wicked in his rage, who…
Whereby he meaneth the wicked in his rage, who hath no fear of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 17:12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps…
Pro 17:12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
Ver. 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man.] A bear is a fierce and fell creature, the she ear especially, as Aristotle notes, but most of all when robbed of her whelps, which she licketh into form, and loveth without measure. To meet her in this rage is to meet death in the face; and yet that danger may be sooner shifted and shunned than a furious fool set upon mischief. Such were the primitive persecutors, not sparing those Christians whom bears and lions would not meddle with. Such a one was our bloody Bonner, who in five years’ time took and roasted three hundred martyrs, most of them within his own walk and diocese. {a} Such another was that merciless Minerius, one of the Pope’s captains, who destroyed twenty-two towns of the innocent Merindelians in France, together with the inhabitants; and being entreated for some few of them that escaped in their shirts to cover their nakedness, he sternly answered that he knew what he had to do, and that not one of them should escape his hands, but he would send them to hell to dwell among devils. {b}
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{a} Acts and Mon.
{b} Ibid.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Robbed of her whelps, when she is most cruel…
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Note, 1. A passionate man is a brutish man.…
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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a…
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, Rev 13:2; and one had better meet a bear than him and his followers.
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(n) Comment, in Hos. xiii. 8. So Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 18.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Folly - In the heat of his lust or…
Folly - In the heat of his lust or passion.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps]…
Verse 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps] At which times such animals are peculiarly fierce. 2Sa 17:8.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 17:12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps…
Pro 17:12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps — When she is most cruel and fierce; meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly — That is, in the heat of his lust or passion, because the danger is greater, all things considered, and more unavoidable. A man may more easily stop, escape from, or guard against, an enraged bear than an outrageous man. It is observed by Bochart, (de Animal Sacr., lib. 3. cap. 9,) that the female bear is more fierce than the male; that she is more fierce than ordinary when she has whelps; and that when she is robbed of them she is fiercest of all.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The large brown bear of Syria, in her rage…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Fool. Hebrew, "fool in his folly." The danger is…
Fool. Hebrew, "fool in his folly." The danger is not greater in meeting (Calmet) a female bear, though it be the most terrible. (Aristotle, Anim. ix. 1.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain They are less rational in anger than wild beasts.
They are less rational in anger than wild beasts.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps —…
12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps — At which time she is particularly dangerous.
Rather than (Hebrew, but not) a fool in his folly — That is, a man had better encounter a ferocious she bear than a wicked fool. So the versions and critics generally. On the bereaved bear, compare 2Sa_17:8; 2Ki_2:24; Hos_13:8.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. a bear &c.] “The Syrian bear is fiercer…
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) A bear robbed of her whelps.—Proverbially dangerous then…
(12) A bear robbed of her whelps.—Proverbially dangerous then (2Sa_17:8; Hos_13:8). (See also 1Ki_2:24.)
A fool (khesîl).—Comp. Pro_1:32.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a…
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man. The Syrian bear was once common throughout Palestine; it is now found in but few localities, such as the hills of Hermon and Lebanon, and in the hills east of the Jordan, the destruction of wood and forest having deprived these animals of the shelter necessary to their existence. The ferocity of the bear when deprived of its young had become proverbial. (see 2Sa_17:8 Hos_13:8; Hart, "Animals of the Bible," 28, etc.) Rather than a fool in his folly; i.e. in the paroxysm of his passion. Compare Saul"s ungoverned language to Jonathan, (1Sa_20:30) and Herod"s murder of the children. (Mat_2:16) So we read of the people being filled with anoia against Jesus. (Luk_6:11) Oort supposes that this proverb arose from the riddle, "What is worse to meet than a bear?" Septuagint, "Care will fall upon a man of understanding; but fools imagine evils." The Greek translators take "bear" as us d metaphorically for terror and anxiety, but go far astray from the Hebrew text.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a…
Pro_17:12
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps…
v. 12. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly, for a malignant fool is a greater menace to society and mankind in general than an angry bear.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 17:12 This saying cautions those who try to teach…
17:12 This saying cautions those who try to teach fools. A fool caught in foolishness will react with anger and violence.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.