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Elisha, Two Bears, and Forty-two Youths

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The following is taken from the BLB’s Help/FAQ section where our staff has answered some of the most common questions BLB users have asked on Scripture, God, Christian Living, Eschatology, and much more.

“He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!’ And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys”
(2 Kings 2:23-24)

2 Kings 2:23-24 is a fascinating and in some ways worrisome passage, especially as it is represented in many translations of the Bible. There is a more reasonable explanation for the violent event than simply removing things from their context and imagining that Elisha simple used a couple bears to kill some children who were mocking him.

It’s important to note that at this point in history, the northern kingdom of Israel has taken upon itself the identity of Canaan.

Centuries earlier, Joshua had led the people of Israel out of the wilderness, over the Jordan, and into the land of Canaan at God’s mandate. Israel was simultaneously reaping the promise of blessing with which God had privileged them and acting as the arm of God’s divine judgment against a people who had set themselves up as the enemies of God. As God judges all men, so he here judged the civilizations residing in the land of Canaan (doing so in the earthly realm as a pedagogical tool for future generations) and Joshua acts as his divinely appointed hand. The inhabitants of Canaan perished because they had positioned themselves as the enemies of God.

A few hundred years after Joshua’s conquer of Canaan, the kingdom of Israel split into two separate nations, the Southern Kingdom of Judah (which comprised Jerusalem and the temple—where ordained worship of God occurred) and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. As the Northern Kingdom had no ordained center of worship, its newly founded king, Jeroboam, decided to create two—rather than risk Israelites heading into the Southern Kingdom in order to worship and falling under Judah’s power. To counter Judah’s prominence as the center of worship, Jeroboam set up altars in both Bethel and Dan.

And yet here he begins to reverse Joshua’s accomplishment by inviting the Northern Kingdom to taking on the identity of Canaanites rather than as the people of God. In Dan and in Bethel, Jeroboam crafts golden calves, intentionally reminiscent of that prepared by Aaron on Sinai, and invokes Sinai’s peculiar Aaronic benediction saying, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:25ff). Jeroboam invites the Northern Kingdom to forego worship of God in Jerusalem and sets precedent for them to worship crafted gods, as the Canaanites had.

A couple more centuries pass and the Northern Kingdom has fully embraced its identity as being a nation who will have nothing to do with the God who had brought them to the land they inhabit. They have, for all intents, become the enemies of God every bit as much as the Canaanites had been before them. It is into this land and before this people that the story of Elisha insinuates itself.

Elisha, like Joshua before him, is operating as the hand of God on earth. He renders judgment and offers mercy as God does. And it is in this capacity as God’s servant that he comes to Bethel, one of the centers of pagan worship and headquarters of the enemies of God. And out of the city come the servants of the temple, the officials and leaders of idolatrous worship, to call down curses on Elisha and to threaten his life. These are the self-proclaimed enemies of God and they threaten the life of God’s own envoy and servant. It is little wonder they meet with a bad end.

But how are we to know that these are servants of the temple? Most translations describe them as children or young men.

The word Hebrew translated here as “children” (na’ar) often means official or servant and doesn’t necessarily even refer to age at all. Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba is referred to as na’ar (2 Samuel 16:1), yet he has fifteen sons. The man that Boaz has positioned as boss over his fieldworkers is na’ar—not a position one grants to children (Ruth 2:5-6). The word na’ar is translated as “servant” over fifty times (roughly a fifth of the times it appears in Scripture).

Not only were these men servants of pagan deities, they heard of Elisha’s approach and came to meet him with threats. It had been big and recent news that Elisha’s mentor Elijah had just vanished from the face of the earth. While Scripture records that he had been taken up to heaven alive and in a chariot of flame, many at the time believed that this was merely a cute story to cover up Elijah’s death. In saying “Go on up!” They are both mocking what they presume to have been the death of Elijah and a threatening similar fate (death) to Elisha.

These truly are the enemies of God and Elisha. They have willingly taken on the identity of those who Joshua, God’s divine hand, was commanded to conquer. They have chosen to be conquered by their choice to oppose the army of the Lord. And so, it seems less drastic then that Elisha should pass judgment on those who, as enemies of God, are threatening the life of the earthly hand of God.

Comments

  3. I, too, wondered about this particular passage. I am eager to accept this new insight and will study it in-depth in light of this new information.

  4. In Leviticus 26, God outlines five cycles of chastisement that He will impose upon Israel if they do not obey the law covenant. This attack on kids by the bears is God’s punishment as outlined in Leviticus 26:22 “I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.”

    • Well done, Eric,

      It is so hard for people to accept the sovereignty of God and His judgements against wickedness. The writer of the blog said, “There is a more reasonable explanation for the violent event than simply…imagining that Elisha… used…bears to kill some children who were mocking him.”

      Why does there have to be a human reasonable explanation? God said do not touch His prophets or do them any harm, period! (1 Chronicles 16:21-22; Psalm 105:14-15). All things are done for His Glory!

      The true prophets of God only do or say what God tells them to do! (Deut 18:20-22 KJV) It was God who struck down those boys for His Glory!

      God is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8, 1 Tim 3:16) And if you can receive it, God in His sovereignty, is still striking down wickedness today for His Glory. (Luke 13:1-5)

      Hbr 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

      Peace and Grace is in Jesus the Messiah,

      Dee

  5. Thanks for your words here. You have provided a thought provoking post. If you are correct, the explanation that these “people” were in fact apostate leaders into idolatry would seem to make sense. But when I look up “na’ar” in Strong’s it shows as “young, youths” etc. quite a few times in the OT usages as well as “servant.” I have no ax to grind here at all. But while you have shown that the “servant” usage could be possible for a correct interpretation, I’m not entirely confident in your thesis just yet. Seems to me that we need some Hebrew scholars to log in and suggest why so many translators have chosen to use “youths” instead of “servants,” and to suggest a more clearly understood reason for the translators choices. I’m totally willing to accept either the “youth” or the “servant” translation as long as it is supported by a tad more Hebrew language clarification. For the moment I’ll hold my decision in neutral.
    Blessings,
    gr

  6. Hi Robinhood,

    Calling in Hebrew scholars and examining different translations to determine whether these were young boys or servants or idolators, will not change the indisputable fact that God killed, or if you want to be delicate, allowed the prophet to kill, these persons for troubling His prophet in a profane way. One can pad the issue with suppositions and historical scholarship in the Hebrew language as the author tries to do, but he and you can not escape the fact that these boys, 42 of them, were killed for making fun of God’s prophet.

    Are you going to say also, like so many persons relying on man’s vain moral world view, that man is more moral than God, and that God is unjust?

    The Holy Ghost, in God’s fearsome authority, by the Apostle Paul, puts humanity in its place by saying:

    (Rom 9:20-21 KJV) But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed [it], “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

    Accept it or not. God is greater than man and He hates wickedness! He alone defines what wickedness is, and He is sovereign in His actions for dealing with it!

    Rest in the grace of God,

    Dee

  7. Hi, Elijah was not taken up to heaven in a chariot of flame, the chariot was used to separate Elijah and Elisha and then Elijah went up in a whirlwind, also many thanks for this revelation as it has been a passage that I have pondered for sometime now 🙂

  8. It helps to see this read with the alternate interpretation of “servants” but I take exception (politely) to Dee’s post saying prophets only do what God tells them to. They are people like us, with a serious calling.

    Consider: (old prophet speaking to the young prophet)
    1Ki 13:18 – He said unto him, I [am] a prophet also as thou [art]; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD,saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied unto him.

    Then Baalam was a corrupt prophet… Elijah ran from Jezebel and Jonah ran from God…Nope, they sure are real people who say things and do things out of their human response to situations.

    I wonder why most translators read it as “children”? What do the hebrew translators say -? And are we just ignorant English speaking folk who miss the dual meaning of “children” in this context, as the commentator points out? In that case, there is no real difference in the word used, just how we understand it.

    How about this – the prophet retaliated against a band of youths disrespectful of his God and his office as a major prophet. THINK: odds are 42 to 1, young males (thugs?)against one old man.

    I’d be calling God for help too!

    It’s unlikely he retaliated for the name calling – holy men are not usually prideful sorts that take offense easily. Nor child killers. BUT why would “little boys” be allowed en masse outside Bethel, unsupervised? It makes no sense.

    Likewise, we cannot assume they were representing pagan gods. These estranged Hebrews were kin to the southern kingdom Jews (judah tribe) even in a backslidden condition. Not all officials or their servants would have been pagans (non-hebrews). God banished/scattered the 10 tribes as punishment for the idolatry – the Bible does not say he scattered foreigners with the hebrews, or that they had merged with a pagan nation.

    Probably, these were paganized hebrews, if it follows the pattern of Israel worshipping God AND foreign gods. Same old, same old, and hostile to the real prophet. Same old…

    I DO wonder WHY the bears caught 42 youths … did they stand around watching their peers get chomped? And how many ran away?? It does not say the bears got all the offenders! Quite a mob harassing (menacing?) one prophet.

    • Hi Goldencat,

      Concerning your comment “take exception (politely) to Dee’s post saying prophets only do what God tells them to…”, I believe your exception was based on misreading what I wrote. I wrote:

      “The true prophets of God only do or say what God tells them to do! (Deut 18:20-22 KJV)”, and then I gave one of the scriptural basis for a true versus a false prophet. I believe the curse Elisha spoke speaks for itself as issuing from God. Sorry that you missed that word “true”.

      Great post with the examples of false prophets though. I also agree with your deduction that these youths were probably paganized Hebrews, “if it follows the pattern of Israel worshiping God AND foreign gods. Same old, same old, and hostile to the real prophet. Same old…”

      Also, your final observations I found funny, but true considerations nonetheless. (I like a good chuckle.) I see this account as God’s work. Maybe He made 42 of them stand around and wait their turn to be mauled, (LOL!) just like He had the Midianites or Philistines turn and kill each during a battle, or city walls fall down after walking around them and blowing a shofar, or…. Just other unexplainable, “unreasonable” sovereign divine interventions.

      Grace and Peace is in Jesus the Messiah,

      Dee

  9. A prophet is the megaphone, if you will, of God. A prophet flows in the emotions of God. For Elisha to “spontaneously” turn and release a speaking against those that would mock does not surprise me. The Eternal One was fed up with those that had known truth and made a choice to break the bread of covenant with a strange god. It is a scriptural documented fact that God uses the elements of creation for blessing and correction. Be it a bear or a cloud I care not for He spoke.

    You will know them by there love one for another and the spirit will bear witness. I sense truth in this presentation. There are those that had questions, so there have been answers. He that hath an ear, let him hear.

    Thank you Chris for allowing The Holy Spirit to expanded the minds of those willing to hear.

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