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.
Bear, dob, ἄρκτος. The species which inhabited Palestine is the Syrian Bear (Syriacus Ursus). When young its colour is a dark brown, but this colour gets lighter with age, and when old it is nearly white. They are now comparatively scarce in Palestine, but may still be seen on the mountains of Lebanon, and occasionally farther south. When vegetables and fruits are to be had the bear feeds upon them, but in the winter it lives upon animals. David slew a lion and a bear that had seized a lamb of the flock. 1 Sam. 17:34-37. The she-bear is regarded as peculiarly fierce and dangerous when robbed of her whelps. 2 Sam. 17:8; Prov. 17:12: cf. 2 Kings 2:24. Alas that God should have to compare His fierce judgements on Israel to such a creature, together with the lion and leopard. Hosea 13:7-8. In the millennium the cow and the bear shall feed together. Isa. 11:7. In Dan. 7:5 the Medo-Persian kingdom was compared to a bear, with three ribs in its mouth; and to it was said, "Arise, devour much flesh." In Rev. 13:2 the beast that represents the still future Roman empire is described as being like a leopard, with feet as the feet of a bear, showing its destructive character, for it is by the strength of its feet the bear destroys its prey by tearing it open.