I will meet them as a bear [that is] bereaved [of her whelps], and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
Ver. 8. I mill meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps] Surgit hic oratio. The bear is more cruel than the lion, for the lion is said to spare the prostrate; but the bear falleth foul upon all, yea, upon dead carcases. See Amo 5:9 cf. 2Sa 17:8 Proverbs 17:12. See also what work the two bears made upon the forty-two children, 2 Kings 2:24 .
And will rend the caul of their heart] The pericardium, a that fat heart of theirs, Hosea 13:6, that hoof upon their hearts which the Word could not pierce through, that filthy foreskin that grew to their uncircumcised hearts.
There will I devour them like a lion] Once more like a lion (לביא), ut immanis leo, for the word is not the same as before; as a lion, that is, in heart, and that loves to suck the blood, and the fat that is about the heart. "There will I devour them," that is, in their cities and houses, where they hold themselves safest; as the lions dealt by those mongrel colonies that made a mixture of religions, 2 Kings 17:25 .
The wild beast shall tear them] When they but stir anywhere abroad; so that there shall be no safety, no peace to him that goes out, or to him that cometh in, 2 Chronicles 15:5, but
“ crudelis ubique
Luetus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago. ”
"Let us therefore have grace, whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear: for even our God" (and not the God of the Jews only) "is a consuming fire," Hebrews 12:28,29 , is a devouring lion, is a furious leopard, a raging bear; yea, put all the dreadfulness of all the creatures in the world together, it is all to be found in the wrath of God, even the quintessence of all. Hence that of the Psalmist, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath," Psalms 90:11 ; as who should say, Let a man fear thy displeasure never so much, he is sure to feel thee much more, if once he fall into thy fingers. Now a fearful man can fancy vast and terrible fears, as ramping lions, ravenous leopards, fire, sword, racks, scalding lead, burning pitch, running bell metal, all this in extremity, and that to all eternity: and yet all these are but as a painted fire in comparison of the unconceivable and unsupportable wrath of God.
a The membranous sac, consisting of an outer fibrous and an inner serous layer, which encloses the heart and the commencements of the great vessels. Also applied to the sac enveloping or enclosing the heart or corresponding organ in certain invertebrates. ŒD