John Trapp on Hosea 13:8

Verſe 8. I will meet them as a Bear bereaved of her whelps,] Surgit hic oratio. The Bear is more cruell then the Lion: for the Lion is ſaid to ſpare the proſtrate: but the Bear falleth foul upon all, yea upon dead carcaſſes. See Amos 5.9. and confer 2 Sam. 17.8. Prov. 17.12. See alſo what work the two Bears made upon the two and fourty children, 2 King. 2.

and will rent the caul of their heart,] The pericardium, that fat heart of theirs, verſe 6. that hoof upon their hearts which the word could not pierce thorow, that filthy fore-skin that grew to their uncircumciſed hearts.

there will I devour them like a lion,] Once more like a lion, ut immanis Ieo, for the word is not the ſame as before, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. as a lion, that is, in heart, and that loves to ſuck the blood, and the fat that is about the heart. There will I devour them, that is, in their cities, and houſes, where they hold themſelves ſafeſt: as the lions dealt by thoſe mongrell-Colonies that made a mixture of religions, 2 King. 17.25.

the wild beaſt ſhall tear them.] when they but ſtirre any where abroad; ſo that there ſhall be no ſafety, no peace to him that goes out, or to him that commeth in, 2 Chron. 15.5. but —crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, & plurima mortis imago. Let us therefore have grace, whereby we may ſerve God with reverence and godly fear: for even our God (and not the God of the Jews onely) is a conſuming fire, is a devouring Lion, is a furious Leopard, a raging Bear: yea put all the dreadfulneſſe of all the creatures in the world together,Heb. 12.28, 29 it is all to be found in the wrath of God, even the quinteſſence of all. hence that of the Pſalmiſt, Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, ſo is thy wrath, Pſal. 90.11. as who ſhould ſay, Let a man fear thy diſpleaſure never ſo much, he is ſure to feel thee much more, if once he fall into thy fingers. Now a fearfull man can fancy vaſt and terrible fears, as ramping lions, ravenous leopards, fire, ſword, racks, ſcalding lead, burning pitch, running bell-mettle, all this in extremity, and that to all eternity: and yet all theſe are but as a painted fire, in compariſon of the unconceiveable and unſupportable wrath of God.