Nadene Goldfoot
Bears used to live in ancient Israel. One thinks of Israel today as desert and lions, but bears lived there as well. Jerusalem has a Biblical Zoo which contains all the animals found mentioned in the Bible.
Bears
Dov is bear in Hebrew. It's also used as a first name. From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia. DOV or Dov could refer to: דב or דוב, a
Hebrew male given name meaning "bear", from which the
Yiddish name "Ber" (בער) was derived (cognate with "bear")
which was common among East European Jews.
Bears are mentioned 12 times in the Hebrew Bible. David, again, killed
one while protecting his father’s flocks (1 Samuel 17). And two bears
attacked a group of wild youths harassing the Prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2).
It is in 1 Samuel 17 that we read that David, son of Jesse was the son of
an Ephrathite of the tribe of Ephraim, a man of Bethlehem in Judah, one
of 8 sons. I've always assumed he was of the tribe of Judah being he lived
in Judah's given assignment.
"David was telling Saul about protecting his father's flocks and a lion or a
bear would attack and he had killed them with his sling. David will kill
Goliath in this section of the Bible.
Elisha annointed Jehu as king of Israel (843-816 BCE)
The 2 prophets, Elijah and Elisha were together and the people
of the city told Elisha that their city was pleasant but that the water was
bad and made the land deadly. Elisha cured the water, and continued
walking on to Beth-el and some teenagers came out and mocked him,
calling out, "go on up, Baldhead! Go on up, Baldhead!" Elisha turned
around and saw them and cursed them in the name of HaShem.
2 bears then came out of the forest and tore apart 42 of the lads. " If
Elisha could cure water, he could do things like curse people.
Elisha was a prophet of the 9th century BCE who lived around the era of King
Jehoram, King of Israel (853-843 BCE). He was held in great esteem by
the people, a man of many miracles including resurrection of the dead, He
was the disciple and successor of Elijah. Besides their religion, he was
interested in politics, foretelling the Syrian Hazael's accession to the
Syrian throne. Elisha was a prophet for 60 years.
The bear species of this region is known as the Syrian brown bear. And while it is believed to be extinct in Israel, examples still live within the region of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and even as far south as Syria and Lebanon (although sightings are incredibly rare, due to poaching and habitat loss). The Syrian brown bear is the smallest species of the brown bear family, yet these animals still weigh up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds).
Resource;
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://watchjerusalem.co.il/592-the-animals-of-the-bible
Tanakh, the Stone Edition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Biblical_Zoo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov
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