Proverbs 28:15

A wicked ruler over vulnerable people is as dangerous as a roaring lion or charging bear. It condemns the cruelty of oppressive, predatory leadership.

Cross-references · 14

• 1 Pet 5:8Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
• Matt 2:16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men.
• Prov 19:12The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
• Exod 1:22Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
• Prov 20:2The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
• 2 Kgs 21:16Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.
• Exod 1:14–16and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
• 1 Sam 22:17–19The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.
• 2 Kgs 15:16Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its border areas, from Tirzah. He attacked it because they didn’t open their gates to him, and he ripped up all their women who were with child.
• Esth 3:6–10But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.
• 2 Kgs 2:24He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.
• Hos 5:11Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.
• Prov 17:12Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
• Hos 13:8I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.