Why did the Prophet Elisha curse the “youths” for making fun of his baldness (2 Kings 2:23-24)?

Answer

Early in the ministry of Elisha, a shocking incident occurred involving a group of youths ridiculing Elisha and paying dearly for it. Here is the biblical record:

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 theLord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. (2 Kings 2:23–24, ESV)

Why would God cause two bears to maul a group of “small boys” for poking fun at a bald man? This doesn’t seem appropriate at all.

One key to understanding this tragic incident is knowing who these “small boys” were. Most translations give the impression that God was terrorizing children by siccing bears on them. In fact, the King James Version says the group was comprised of “little children.” The NASB has “young boys.” The NIV and NLT have “boys,” and the NKJV has “youths.” The Hebrew word in question is a form of the word naar. The definition of * naar*is broad, covering anything from an infant to a young man.

In other contexts, naar certainly refers to someone older than a small child:

• Joseph is called a naar when he was seventeen years old (Genesis 37:2)
• When he was called into ministry, Jeremiah called himself a naar (Jeremiah 1:6)
• King Ahab defeated the Arameans with an army led by 232 naarim (1 Kings 20:13–21) So, we shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the individuals mauled by the she-bears were little kids. They were likely older teenagers or young men in their early 20s. Also, the text indicates a large number of them who had gathered to mock the Lord’s prophet. The fact that the bears mauled “forty-two of the boys” (2 King 2:42) shows that more than forty-two were in the group.

What exactly about Elisha were the young men mocking? Their disrespectful words were “Get out of here, baldy!” or, as other translations have it, “Go up, you baldhead!” (ESV, NASB, NKJV, AMP). The jeer is repeated in the text, which suggests that the crowd was chanting it. Elisha could have been bald or had a thinning head of hair, but not necessarily. The term baldhead could also have been a term of derision, a way of saying Elisha was effete or unmanly.

The young men’s comm and to “go up” is a sarcastic reference to an event earlier in the chapter when “Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11). The taunt was for Elisha to repeat his mentor’s ride into heaven. The youths were saying, in essence, “You’re not welcome here, you foppish sissy! Why don’t you leave like the other prophet did? Why were you left behind—is it because heaven doesn’t want you?”

Significantly, the young men who ridiculed Elisha came out of Bethel (2 Kings 2:23). According to 1 Kings 12, Bethel was a center of pagan worship in that day. King Jeroboam had set up a golden calf in that town. The altar in Bethel was the scene of many sacrifices, and a contingency of priests oversaw the idolatry. The people there held a pagan festival every year. The young men who formed the mob against Elisha had been raised in a culture steeped in paganism, and they themselves may have been apprentice priests in the idolatrous system.

In sum, the account of 2 Kings 2:23–24 is not a cautionary tale admonishing young children to respect their elders. It does not concern a cluster of kids having fun at a bald man’s expense. Rather, 2 Kings 2 relates what happened when the forces of idolatry confronted the Lord’s anointed prophet. A large group of young pagans organized a demonstration against God’s chosen spokesman to keep him out of Bethel, which they considered pagan turf. They directly challenged Elisha’s authority. Their mocking of Elisha was a rejection of God’s representative and, therefore, of God Himself.

The result—the mauling of forty-two of the youths by two female bears—showed that God upholds the authority of His Word and of His prophet. Elisha functioned under the care and authority of God. Justice is not always swift, but in this case it was. The contempt toward Elisha not allowed to continue, and the Lord adjusted the blasphemous attitude of the young men.