“Another beast appeared,
A second one.
It looked
Like a bear.
It was raised up
On one side.
It had three tusks
In its mouth,
Among its teeth.
It was told.
‘Arise!
Devour many bodies!’”
The second beast to come up out of the water was a bear looking creature. It raised up on one side with 3 tusks among the teeth in its mouth. Someone told it to arise and demolish many bodies. This may have been a reference to Medes.
“In those days,
They shall no longer say.
‘The parents have eaten
Sour grapes.
The children’s teeth
Are set on edge.’
But all shall die
For their own sins.
The teeth of everyone
Who eats sour grapes,
Shall be set on edge.”
Yahweh talks about personal responsibility rather than suffering for the sins of your father or parents. Instead of the parents eating sour grapes with the affect on the teeth of their children, now it will affect the parents’ teeth. Yahweh says that everyone will die for their own sins, not the sins of their ancestors. Sometimes, sinning persons were putting the blame on their ancestors, rather than themselves, for what was happening to them. Thus whoever eats sour grapes would find his own teeth affected, not their children.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 