Proverbs Chapter 17 verse 12 Holy Bible
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, Rather than a fool in his folly.
read chapter 17 in ASV
It is better to come face to face with a bear whose young ones have been taken away than with a foolish man acting foolishly.
read chapter 17 in BBE
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly.
read chapter 17 in DARBY
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
read chapter 17 in KJV
read chapter 17 in WBT
Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, Rather than a fool in his folly.
read chapter 17 in WEB
The meeting of a bereaved bear by a man, And -- not a fool in his folly.
read chapter 17 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - 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 2 Samuel 17:8; Hosea 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 (1 Samuel 20:30), and Herod's murder of the children (Matthew 2:16). So we read of the people being filled with ἄνοια against Jesus (Luke 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.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) A bear robbed of her whelps.--Proverbially dangerous then (2Samuel 17:8; Hosea 13:8). (See also 1Kings 2:24.)A fool (khesil).--Comp. Proverbs 1:32.
