And behold another beast, a second, like a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Read Chapter 7
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Bear, which is cruel, and eats what is set before it greedily. (Worthington)
Side. Cyrus did not attack the Jews. (St. Jerome)
He stood ready to attack the Chaldeans.
Three. He ruled over the Medes and Chaldeans, as well as over the Persians. (Calmet)
Rows. Greek, "wings or sides "of an animal, (Haydock) or "bones. "(Grotius)
Cyrus was always at war; and Justin (1.) says, that Tomyris II of Scythia, ordered his head to be cut off, and thrown into a vessel full of blood. His troops are styled robbers, Jeremias li. 48. The ambition of Cambyses, Hystaspes are insatiable.
A second beast like to a bear. To represent the kingdom of the Persians. And it had three ribs. The three nations he calls three ribs. The meaning, therefore, is this: that beast had the dominion, and these others under it were the Medes, Assyrians, and Babylonians. And they said thus to it, Arise, devour. For the Persians arising in these times, devastated every land, and made many men subject to them, and slew them. For as this beast, the bear, is a foul animal, and carnivorous, tearing with claws and teeth, such also was the kingdom of the Persians, who held the supremacy for two hundred and thirty years.
The second beast resembling a bear is the same as that of which we read in the vision of the statue (2:32): "His chest and arms were of silver." In the former case the comparison was based on the hardness of the metal, in this case on the ferocity of the bear. For the Persian kingdom followed a rigorous and frugal manner of life (665) after the manner of the Spartans, and |74 that too to such an extent that they used to use salt and nasturtium-cress in their relish. Let us consult the record of the childhood of Cyrus the Great (i.e., "The Education or Training" of Cyrus) [Jerome refers here to Xenophon's "Cyropaideia"]. And as for the fact that the bear is said to have "stood up on one side," the Hebrews interpret it by saying that the Persians never perpetrated any cruelty against Israel. Hence they are described in the Prophecy of Zechariah also as white horses (Zech. 1). But as for the three rows or ranks that were in his mouth and between his teeth, one authority has interpreted th...
