A commentary on II Kings 2232 ÿ A COMMENTARY OF 2-KINGS 2:23-24. ================================
VERSE – 23
And he went up from thence unto Bethel. The ascent is steep and long from the Jordan valley to the highlands of Benjamin, on which Bethel stood, probably one of not less than three thousand feet. The object of Elisha’s visit may have been to inform the “sons of the prophets” a Bethel (ver.3) of the events that had befallen Elijah.
And as he was going up by the way In other words, by the usual road or pathway, for, in the strict sense of the word, roads did not exist in Palestine.
there came forth little children out of the city. “Little children” is an unfortunate translation, raising quite a wrong idea of the tender age of the persons spoken of. [Naarim Ketanaim] would be best translated “young lads” -boys, that is, from twelve to fifteen. Such mischievous youths are among the chief nuisances of the towns’ they waylay the traveller, deride him, jeer him -are keen to remark any personal defect that he may have, and merciless in flouting it; they dog his steps, shout out their rude remarks, and sometimes proceed from abusive words to violent acts, as the throwing of sticks, or stones, or mud. On this occasion they only got as far as rude words.
And mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head! It has been maintained that the scoff of the lads contained an allusion to the ascension of Elijah, of which they had heard, and was a call upon Elisha to follow his master’s example in quitting the world, that they might be no longer troubled with him. But it is not at all apparent that the lads even knew who Elisha was -they would probably have jeered at any aged person with whom they had fallen in; and by “Go up”: they merely meant “Go on thy way;” the force of their jeer was not in the word [aleh], but in the word [kereach] “bald head”. “Baldness was sometimes produced by leprosy, and then made a man unclean (Lev.13:42-44); but the boys probably flouted the mere natural defect, in which there was no “uncleanness” (Lev.13:40-41), but which they regarded as a fit subject for ridicule. Their sin was disrespect towards old age, combined, perhaps with disrespect for the prophetical order, to which they may have known from his dress that Elisha belonged.
VERSE – 24
And he turned back, and looked on them; Rather,”and he looked behind him”, and saw them. The boys, after the manner of boys, were following him, hanging upon him, not daring to draw too near, hooting him from behind, as ill-bred and ill-intentioned youths are apt to do.
And cursed them in the name of the Lord. The action cannot be defended from a Christian point of view -Christians have no right to curse any one. Under the law, God’s ministers were required to curse the disobedient (Deut.27:14-26). Elisha could not tell what would be the effect of his curse. It could have no effect at all except through the will and by the action of God.
And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood;
or, the forest; i.e. the forest, which, as all knew, lay within a short distance of Bethel, and was the haunt of wild beasts (1-Kings 3:24). It may be possible that the noise and actions aroused the attention of the beasts.
And tare forty and two children of them.
It is not said how far the lads were injured, whether fatally or not. But the punishment, whatever its severity, came from God, not from the prophet, and we may be sure was just. For “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” A severe example may have been needed under the circumstances of the time, when a new generation was growing up in contempt of God and of religion; and the sin of the lads determined bent of the will against good, and preference of evil, which is often developed early, and generally goes on from bad to worse.
Compiled comments from various authors. PART 1 2-Kings 2:23-25.
Ridicule -“And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going” etc. These verses lead us to consider ridicule in three aspects.
I. AS INFAMOUSLY DIRECTED
- Directed against an old man on account of his -supposed personal defects. “Go up, thou bald head!” This meant, perhaps, “Go up, as Elisha has gone, if thou canst; we want to get rid of thee.” Though baldness of the head is not always a sign of age, Elisha was undoubtedly far advanced in years. Nothing is more contemptible or absurd than to ridicule people on account of constitutional defects, whether of body or mind. Direct the shafts of ridicule, if you like, against defects of moral character, against vanity and pride, sensuality, but never against constitutional defects,-that is impious; for no man can make one hair white or black, or add a cubit to his stature.
- Directed against a man engaged in a mission of mercy. He was Heaven’s messenger of mercy to his country. He came to Bethel to bestow wise counsels on the sons of the prophets, and to bless all who would listen to his counsels. How often has ridicule been thus infamously directed! Christ himself was once its victim; its chief victim. “They that passed by, wagged their heads.” They put on him a “crown of thorns.”
II. AS MALEVOLENTLY INSPIRED The animus in this ridicule was that of an intolerant religion. There were two schools of religion in Bethel, two rival sects; one was the religion of the true God, and the other that of idolatry. One of Jeroboam’s calves was there established as the object of worship. There is no malevolence so inveterate and ruthless as that inspired by false religion and rival sects. Perhaps these children had not this infernal passion to any extent, but were the mere instruments of their intolerant parents. Probably their parents sent them out now to meet the prophet, and put the very words into their mouths, taught them by what notes, grimaces, and attitude they should ring them out. This ridiculing the men of God was one of the crying sins of Israel. “They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets.” These children were but the echoes and the instruments of their parents’ religious malignant intolerance. III. TERRIBLY PUNISHED “And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tare forty and two children of them.”
They were punished by the justice of God. The prophet’s indignation was righteous, and, because it was righteous, the justice of God sanctioned it by causing “two she bears out of the wood to tear forty and two children of them.” This was a tremendous homily of Divine justice to the whole population-a sermon that would thunder in the hearts of the fathers, the mothers, and the neighbors.
CONCLUSION. Take care how you use your faculty of ridicule. It is a useful faculty in its place. “Satire is the east wind of thought.” Scorching sarcasm has withered to the roots many a noxious weed; satire has humbled to the dust, has struck to the earth, many a proud and houghty soul. Elijah used it on Carmel’s brow, Job used it to his arrogant friends, and Paul to the conceited members of the Corinthian Church.
Ridicule, rightly inspired and directed, is “A whip of steel, that can as with a lash Imprint the character of shame so deep, Ev’n in the brazen forehead of proud sin, That not eternity shall wear it out.” (Randolph.)
Compiled comments from various authors. PART 2 2-Kings 2:23-25.
THE MOCKERS AT BETHEL. Its apparent severity has made it a stumbling -block to many. The deed is one in “the spirit of Elias” in the harsher sense, and leaves a painful impression. But the painful aspect of the miracle need not be made greater than it is, nor must it be overlooked that the occasion was one when some display of the “severity of God” was necessary.
I. NATURE OF THE SIN Elisha, going up to Bethel, was assailed by a band of young people from the city, who mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, thou bald head!” a. The mockers. These were not, as the text might lead us to infer, “little children” of six or seven years of age, but young lads,” boys and young men, who had come to the age of responsibility. They came out of Bethel-once a patriarchal sanctuary, but now a focus of Israelitish idolatry-and had evidently been trained in utter ungodliness. b. The mocking. Either Elisha was actually bald-in which case there was added to profanity the ridiculing, so common to boys, of a physical defect-or, as some have thought, “bald head” is a synonym for “leper,” this being one of the signs of that disease. In either case there was; manifested a spirit, contracted probably from their elders, of bitter hatred of the pure religion of Jehovah, and reviling of its prophets and professors. Levity, ridicule, and profane reviling of the pious and their ways is something on which God must always put the brand of his stern disapprobation.
II. AGGRAVATIONS OF THE SIN These must be considered in forming a fair judgment on the case. They enable us also better to draw out the lessons of the offence. There was: a. Dishonor to a sacred place. Bethel means “the house of God.” It was one of the places where God had recorded his name (Gen.28:16-19). Now it was Beth-aven, “the house of the idol” (Hos.10:5). The jeering outburst of impiety of these young men of the city was only a symptom of the iniquity which abounded in it. God was dishonored in a holy place. b. Dishonor to a sacred person. Elisha was God’s prophet, and, in some sense, the living representative at that time of the prophetic order. In him, mockery was heaped on all God’s servants, and on true religion in general. He was known and eminent as the successor of Elijah, and probably it was on this account that he was singled out for these hostile manifestations.
c. Dishonor to a sacred subject. It is not certain, but it is the view of some that in the words, “Go up, thou bald head!’ there is allusion to the recent translation of Elijah. Sacred places, sacred persons, and sacred things are all to be honoured, and contempt poured on any of them is insult done to God. III. PUNISHMENT OF THE SIN After bearing the contumely for a time, Elisha, doubtless by God’s inward direction, turned round, and pronounced a curse on these youthful mockers. The curse was God’s, not his, as shown by the effect immediately given to it. “There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two of them.” How many escaped we are not told, nor whether all these forty-two were actually killed. But as connected with Elisha’s curse, the event was an awful and unmistakable warning, both to those who escaped and to the population of the city. Had these she-bears issued from the wood without the previous word of Elisha, no one would have wondered at forty-two of this band of youths being attacked and slain. It would have been a “calamity.” Here the event is the same, and it is the same Providence which is concerned, only the hidden reason of the dispensation comes to light. The whole incident teaches in a very emphatic manner the responsibility of youth. “I take this story as teaching us what I think we very much need to be taught, namely, that the faults of our youth, and those which are most natural to us at that age, are not considered by God as trifling…. You may hear grown-up people talk in a laughing manner of the faults which they committed at school, of their idleness, and their various acts of mischief, and worse than mischief. And when boys hear this, it naturally makes them think it really does not matter much whether they behave well or ill-they are just as likely to be respectable and amiable men hereafter. I would beg those who think so to attend a little to the story in the text” (Dr. Arnold, quoted by Rev. T.H. Howat).-J.O.