¹² It is better to come face to face with a bear whose young ones have been taken away than with a foolish man acting foolishly.

⁸ Hushai said further, You have knowledge of your father and his men, that they are men of war, and that their feelings are bitter, like those of a bear in the field whose young ones have been taken from her: and your father is a man of war, and will not take his night's rest with the people;

⁸ I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field.

³ A stone has great weight, and sand is crushing; but the wrath of the foolish is of greater weight than these.

²⁴ And turning back, he saw them, and put a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the wood and put forty-two of the children to death.

¹⁵ Like a loud-voiced lion and a wandering bear, is an evil ruler over a poor people.

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was very angry; and he sent out, and put to death all the male children in Beth-lehem and in all the parts round about it, from two years old and under, acting on the knowledge which he had got with care from the wise men.