Proverbs 17:12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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.