1 Samuel 17:34

and there came a lion, &c. And when a lion came or even a bear (or, and that too with a bear) … I went out after him, &c. "In those early days, when the forests of Southern Palestine had not been cleared, it was the habit of the wild animals which usually frequented the heights of Lebanon or the thickets of the Jordan, to make incursions into the pastures of Judaea. From the Lebanon at times descended the bears. From the Jordan ascended the lion, at that time infesting the whole of Western Asia." Stanley, Lect. II. 43. The Syrian bear is said to be especially ferocious, and appears to have been more dreaded than the lion. See Amos 5:19. Lions are not now found in Palestine, but the traveller Thevenot says that the Arabs are not afraid of them, and will attack and kill them, with no better arms than a stick. Cp. Amos 3:12.