We roar all like bears - This is designed still further to describe the heavy judgments which had come upon them for their sins. The word rendered here ‘roar’ (from המה hâmâh, like English, to hum, German, hummen, spoken of bees), is applied to any murmuring, or confused noise or sound. It sometimes means to snarl, as a dog Psalms 59:7, Psalms 59:15; to coo, as a dove Ezekiel 7:16; it is also applied to waves that roar Psalms 46:4; Isaiah 51:15; to a crowd or tumultuous assemblage Psalms 46:7; and to music Isaiah 16:11; Jeremiah 48:36. Here it is applied to the low growl or groan of a bear. Bochart (Hieroz. i. 3. 9), says, that a bear produces a melancholy sound; and Horace (Epod. xvi. 51), speaks of its low groan:
Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.
Here it is emblematic of mourning, and is designed to denote that they were suffering under heavy and long-continued calamity. Or, according to Gesenius (Commentary in loc.), it refers to a bear which is hungry, and which growls, impatient for food, and refers here to the complaining, dissatisfaction, and murmuring of the people, because God did not come to vindicate and relieve them.
And mourn sore like doves - The cooing of the dove, a plaintive sound, is often used to denote grief (see Ezekiel 7:16; compare the notes at Isaiah 38:14).
We look for judgment ... - (See the notes at Isaiah 59:9.)