Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Found in Syria and the mountains of Lebanon (2 Sam. 17:8; 2 Kings 2:24; Prov. 17:12).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Syrian Brown Bear – Ursus Arctos Syriacus
The species which inhabited Palestine is the Syrian Bear (Syriacus Ursus). When young its color is a dark brown, but this color gets lighter with age, and when old it is nearly white. They are now comparatively scarce in Palestine, but may still be seen on the mountains of Lebanon, and occasionally farther south. When vegetables and fruits are to be had the bear feeds upon them, but in the winter it lives upon animals. David slew a lion and a bear that had seized a lamb of the flock (1 Sam. 17:34-37). The she-bear is regarded as peculiarly fierce and dangerous when robbed of her whelps (2 Sam. 17:8; Prov. 17:12; compare 2 Kings 2:24). Alas that God should have to compare His fierce judgments on Israel to such a creature, together with the lion and leopard (Hos. 13:7-8). In the millennium the cow and the bear shall feed together (Isa. 11:7).
In Daniel 7:5 the Medo-Persian kingdom was compared to a bear, with three ribs in its mouth; and to it was said, “Arise, devour much flesh.” In Revelation 13:2 The beast that represents the still future Roman empire is described as being like a leopard, with feet as the feet of a bear, showing its destructive character, for it is by the strength of its feet the bear destroys its prey by tearing it open.