And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Behold another beast, a second, like to a bear - symbolizing the austere life of the Medes and Persians in their mountains, also their cruelty (Isaiah 13:17-18). Cambyses, Ochus, and other of the Persian princes, were notoriously cruel: the Persian laws involved, for one man's offence, the whole kindred and neighbourhood in destruction (Daniel 6:24) and rapacity. 'A bear is an all-devouring animal' (Aristotle, 8: 5). (Jeremiah 51:48; Jeremiah 51:56, "the spoilers," the Medo-Persians).
It raised up itself on one side. But the Hebrew, in the Venetian 'Editio Bombergiana,' with the commentaries of Rabbis, and 'Antverpiensis Plantiniana,' is as margin, 'it raised up one dominion' [shªTar]. The Medes, an ancient people, and the Persians, a modern tribe, formed one united sovereignty, in contrast to the third and fourth kingdoms, each of which was originally one, but was afterward divided. The English version, with Rabbi David Kimchi, and the Parisian edition of Robert Stephens, is the result of a slight change of a Hebrew letter [sªTar]. The idea then would be, 'it lay on one of its forefeet, and stood on the other:' a figure still to be seen on one of the stones of Babylon (Munter, 'Relig. Babyl.,' 112:); denoting a kingdom that had been at rest, but is now rousing itself for conquest. Media is the lower side, passiveness; Persia the upper, active element (Auberlen).
And it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it. The three ribs in its mouth are Media, Lydia, and Babylon, brought under the Persian sway. Rather, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, not properly parts of its body, but seized by Medo-Persia (Sir Isaac Newton). Called "ribs" because they strengthened the Medo-Persian empire. 'Between its teeth,' as being much grinded by it.
And they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh - i:e., subjugate many nations.