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.
I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps - (2 Samuel 17:8). 'Writers on the natures of beasts say that none is more savage than a she-bear when bereaved of her whelps' (Jerome).
And will rend the caul of their heart - the membrane enclosing it-the pericardium.
And there will I devour them - "there," "by the way;" "there," where they sinned, shall they be punished (Hosea 13:7).
The wild beast shall tear them. It is remarkable that here there are specified the very four beasts which Daniel (Hosea 7:1-16) mentions long subsequently, following in Hosea's steps, as the symbols of the four world-powers whereby the people of God were and are to be chastised. The lion, the bear, the leopard, and the wild beast, whose name is not given, but which is described as "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and diverse from all the beasts that were before it" (Daniel 7:7).