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As a bear - bereaved - This is a figure to denote excessive ferocity. See the note on 2 Samuel 17:8; (note), where a remarkable instance is given.
And will rend the caul of their heart - Every savage beast goes first to the seat of the blood when it has seized its prey; as in this fluid they delight more than in the most delicate parts of the flesh.
There will I devour them like a lion - לביא labi, the old strong lion; drinking the blood, tearing the flesh, and breaking the bones to extract the marrow.
The wild beast shall tear them - Probably this refers to the chakal or jackal, who frequently hunts down the prey, which the lion takes the liberty to devour, while the jackal stands by, and afterwards picks the bones. Hence he has been called the lion's Provider, and the lion's waiting-man.
As a bear bereaved of her whelps - The Syrian bear is fiercer than the brown bears to which we are accustomed. It attacks flocks 1 Samuel 17:34, and even oxen. The fierceness of the she-bear, “bereaved of her whelps,” became a proverb (2 Samuel 17:8; Proverbs 17:12; and here).: “They who have written on the nature of wild beasts, say that none is more savage than the she-bear, when she has lost her whelps or lacks food.” It blends wonderfully most touching love and fierceness. It tenderly protects its wounded whelps, reckless of its life, so that it may bring them off, and it turns fiercely on their destroyer. Its love for them becomes fury against their injurer. Much more shall God avenge those who destroy His sons and daughters, leading and enticing them into sin and destruction of body and soul.
Rend the caul of - (what encloses) their heart that is, the pericardium. They had closed their hearts against God. Their punishment is pictured by the rending open of the closed heart, by the lion which is said to go instinctively straight to the heart, tears it out, and sucks the blood. Fearful will it be in the Day of Judgment, when the sinner‘s heart is laid open, with all the foul, cruel, malicious, defiled, thoughts which it harbored and concealed, against the will of God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” Hebrews 10:31.
And there will I devour them - “There,” where they sinned, shall they be punished. “The wild beast shall tear them.” What God does, He does mostly through instruments, and what His instruments do, they do fulfilling His will through their own blind will or appetite. Hitherto, He had spoken, as being Himself their punisher, although laying aside, as it were, all His tenderness; now, lest the thought, that still it was He, the God of love who punished, should give them hope, He says, “the wild beast shall devour them.” He gives them up, as it were, out of His own hands to the destroyer.