![]() ![]() – This number implies there were more who escaped from the bears, possibly hundreds. The punishment mirrored the severity of the crime. The young men threatened him, and a threat on God’s chosen is a threat on God Himself. It does not say the bears killed or ate those 42 young men, but we might assume it. Why bears? God said if you walk contrary to Me, “I will send wild beasts among you” (Lev 26:21–22). I doubt that the one thing Elisha would have noticed about the bears was their gender. I wonder why most translations keep it as “female bear” in 2Kings 2:24 and just “bear” in 1Sam 17:34? In either case, the description of the bears was their speed, not their gender or size. The same word H1677 is just translated “bear” when David killed a bear as “a youth” (1Sam 17:34-36). Its root comes from H1680, “to move slowly”. –“she bear”, H1677 is one word in Hebrew and is translated “bear (slow)”. Local tradition places the site of this story near the town of Deir Dibwan and is called, “The Lair of the Two Bears,” about 1. This shows that the young men pursued Elisha. – “the wood” was on the road to Bethel, not in Bethel. It’s unlikely that the violent crowd would have let Elisha peacefully walk through their midst, but more likely that he ran from them and turned around to curse them for his defense. Why turn back unless he was trying to escape? The group was obviously opposing him while he was trying to get away from them. – Elisha was GOING TO Bethel, the young men were COMING FROM Bethel they would have met face to face. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” They mocked him (in a threatening way), saying, “Go up in the sky like your master and die, you worthless piece of trash!”ĢKings 2:24 – “And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. It is written twice, “Go up, thou bald head go up, thou bald head“, showing that the group was repeatedly chanting, like when the crowd that crucified Jesus said, “crucify him, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21) and Jesus was “lifted UP” (John 3:14).Įlisha went from Jericho to the idolatrous city of Bethel, and as he was arriving, a group of possibly hundreds of young men/teenagers came out of the city, perusing him. The point isn’t if he was bald or not, the point is that these young men were hostile towards Elisha. There are 3 possibilities as to why they said this 1) he was just naturally bald, 2) he shaved his head like a monk, showing his separation to the prophetic office, or 3) HE WASN’T BALD and this was just an insult because baldness was considered a bad thing among the Jews (Isa 3:17 & 24) similar to how today a person can be called “butthead” without their head resembling a butt at all! Elijah was a hairy man (2Ki 1:8), so if Elisha was truly bald, maybe they characterized them as, “The hairy guy and the bald guy”. – “Go up into the sky like your master and die!” They thought Elijah died (2Ki 2:16) and they wanted Elisha to die too. They were idolatrous young men, and were perhaps the children of the 450 prophets of Baal that Elijah had executed (1Ki 18:40). These were a large group of possibly hundreds of teenagers well capable of killing Elisha. They were all male with no females mentioned. – H5288 – “a boy, a young man”, used of Solomon when he became king anywhere from age 14-20 (1Ki 3:7), of David when he killed the giant in his late teens (1Sam 17:33), Ishmael when he was exiled at age 16-19 (Gen 21:14), and used of men who were spies for Joshua (Josh 6:22-23). He went from here to Mount Carmel (2Ki 2:25). After this incident, who would? He was unwelcome. Nothing says Elisha actually went in the city. Elijah was considered their great enemy (1Ki 21:20) which made Elisha the same. – The center of Jeroboam’s idolatrous worship (1Ki 12:28-33). Perhaps I can provide some answers for this…ĢKings 2:23 – “And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head go up, thou bald head.“ ![]() Elisha cursed them, and two bears attacked them. ![]() Shortly after Elijah had been taken away by God, Elisha traveled to Bethel to be confronted by “little children” who call him “bald head”. One of the strangest bible stories is in 2 Kings. ![]()
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