Preface

There has been a lot of discussion concerning a particular story at the end of the second chapter of 2Kings, a short story that is only two verses long. There have been a number of odd interpretations and unlikely claims about it, so I decided to do a short write up to clear some things up. I could write an entire book about chapter 2 alone, and several chapters just about the symbolism in this short story, but I will refrain from that in this post!

Different Moralities

The stories collected in the Book of Kings were written for the ancient audience with ancient sensibilities. What they found compelling and entertaining might not be so with a modern religious person with a 21st century morality.

For example, 2Ki 10:7-8, good king Jehu was commanded to wipe out the family of king Ahab by God through His prophets, and decapitated the heads of the 70 sons of king Ahab and set the heads in two piles by the gates to send a message to those who would pass through the gates, and instill fear.

If an American General in Afghanistan did such an act, it would be called a war crime and the world would cry out for his punishment for such barbarity.

But we are taking about ancient literature, not modern reporting.

Keep that in mind.

What is a Prophet?

A Prophet is a person to whom God has selected to speak on his behalf. Depending on the prophet, God may choose to act on the prophet’s behalf, killing or causing miraculous acts to take place when the prophet demands it. Such a person is called a navi and his prophecy is called a navua.

There is another term for a prophet, which is ish Elohim (usually translated as a “man of God”) and sometimes it is abbreviated to simply “Elohim” (compare Exodus 7:1 “I will make you an Elohim for Pharaoh…” to Deut. 33:1 “And this is the blessing which Moses, an ish Elohim, blessed the people…”.

I will be referring to all of this as simply “Prophet”.

The idea was that a prophet as a representative of God was also to be treated like God, meaning, you would have great respect, awe, and occasionally grovel. Some of the prophets took this position more seriously than others and might kill those who would dare disrespect the office. And God, of course would approve and even assist.

What about Elisha?

Elisha was the successor to Elijah the very hairy prophet (2Ki 1:8), and they both took their position very seriously. In the first chapter of 2Kings, we are told the story of Elijah’s last act, which was to prophecy the death of king Ahaziah. The king, who was bedridden, sent a captain and 50 men to request Elijah to return with them and explain why he needs to die.

As is often the case in folk tales, the king will do this three times.

The first group commanded Elijah, “Oh man of God, the king has said [for you to] come down.” And Elijah called down a rain of fire to kill them all. The second group said, “Oh man of God, the king has said [for you to] come down quickly.” And again, Elijah killed them all. The third group groveled at his feet and an angel of the LORD spoke to Elijah saying “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.”

In the second chapter, Elijah is preparing to die, and twice it uses an unusual expression, saying that Elijah would be removed from upon Elisha’s head (2ki 2:3, 2ki 2:5). And it is after Elijah flies up to the heavens in a fiery chariot that Elisha becomes the most powerful prophet on the planet.

Elisha returns back to the local prophet school, and while they accept his position and honor him, they have some doubts. They then confirm that he spoke the truth. He chastises them. Then the local people complain about the bad water in a well and he fixes that problem. While they said “please”, there was no statement of gratitude by them.

But before we get to the bears, let’s look at the story’s symmetry.

Symmetry

So the order of Elijah’s final acts were:

Kill otherwise innocent people because they were, in his eyes, disrespectful (1:8)

Stop by Beth-El (2:2)

People annoy Elisha, telling him twice that Elijah will be taken from upon his head. (2:3,5)

Part the waters and cross the Jordon (2:8)

Compare this to Elisha’s initial acts:

Part the waters and cross the Jordon (2:14)

Stop by Beth El (2:23)

Elisha is annoyed with people calling him “bald one” twice (2:23)

Kill otherwise innocent people because they were, in his eyes, disrespectful (2:24)

This symmetrical transition from master leaving and the new master taking over was likely written this way on purpose.

The Story

I have translated the story in 2ki 2:23-24 below. Anything in brackets ([ ]) is my insertion to clarify a point or to make the grammar flow better. Commentary will follow each portion.

“And [Elisha] went up from [where he had purified the waters] to Beth El and he was going up, on the road…”

After not getting the expected absolute respect, Elisha begins walking northwest. He comes to Beth El, which is the place where the pair of golden calves were erected years earlier (1ki 12:28-29).

“…and [a number of] varied youths came out from the city…”

The Hebrew term used here is na’arim qatanim. Now, “na’ar” usually means a prepubescent boy (the feminine version is na’arah) and in Hebrew, when a group is in masculine plural, is can mean all males, or a mixture of males and females. This is the only place in all of Tanach where the word appears in the plural form.

If translated literally rather than as an expression, it would be “small/little youths”. It wouldn’t mean a small number of youths since we will see that there were at least 42 of them. And I prefer “youths” in order to allow the possibility of mixed genders.

As an expression “na’arim qatanim”, it need not be only boys who are exactly 8 years old. It can be varied ages of youth and varied genders. The expression occurs only 7 times in the Tanach, with the other 6 times being only in the singular form. They are:

1Sam 20:35 – Jonathon takes a lad, likely from his household, to fetch arrows. He wants someone who won’t catch onto a deception, so the lad is probably quite young, but not necessarily so.

1Ki 3:7 – King Solomon is speaking of himself. We don’t know for sure how old he is. Rashi claims that he was 12 years old using one set of calculations and assumptions. The Abarbanel claims that Rashi is wrong and uses a different form of assumptions in his calculations to come up with 20, which is more likely. Granted, it’s an expression of humility, but he never claimed to be like a na’ar qatan, but to actually be one. So it’s unclear here.

1Ki 11:17 – Hadad, a child and royal of the Edomites fled to Egypt and was raised there. A young boy is certainly the case here.

2 Ki 2:23 – This verse, which is in a varied plural form.

2 Ki 5:2 – A captured slave girl who served an Aramean warrior’s family gives advice. Likely young, not necessarily so.

2 Ki 5:14 – A man with skin disease had it cured and his skin became like that of a small boy. It’s obviously but an expression, not that he was a little boy, but his skin was like that of a small child.

Isaiah 11:6 – This is part of a list of inconceivable events that ends with “a youth will lead them”. It is likely one who is very young and associates with a royal lineage.

Those who want to claim that the assembly of youths were older thugs who were threatening to Elisha are doing so to feel better about Elisha’s response. As with the case of good king Jehu decapitating the heads of 70 sons of King Ahab, their deaths demanded by Elisa, we don’t know their exact ages as well.

But don’t ignore that the end of the text tells us who the victims were: yeledim, or “children”. Even though “children” is masculine, because it is in the plural form, it could include little girls as well.

Moving along:

“…and they mocked [Elisha]…”

The Hebrew term להתקלס means to mock, humiliate, ridicule, jeer at, and so forth.

And as I noted earlier, treating a prophet badly, especially one with supernatural powers that can kill you, will usually turn out badly for the ridiculer.

“…and they said to him “Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!”

The imperative could refer to “keep going away from here!” It could also refer to “Go up to the heavens like your master” as in “drop dead!” These could be idolaters ridiculing the prophet standing by the pair of golden calves as they did so, although the text doesn’t say so.

I prefer using “baldy” for “kayrayach, or “bald one”, since it sounds more mocking. “Ahlay kayrayach, ahlay kayrayach” does sound like a mocking expression that kids would use to taunt someone.

You can take either position here or consider them both. Either the youths had not heard of the death of Elijah and were mocking Elisha who was seen as but an apprentice who was devoid of his master and wearing is master’s clothes, or they had heard of Elijah’s death and they were taunting Elisha who was nothing like his master.

I like to think that the expression of “bald” is a pun, referring to Elisha’s lack of a master as noted earlier as not being upon his head any longer. It can also play with Elijah being referred to as a hairy man and Elisha being nothing like him.

The text isn’t clear, so you can read it as a literal baldness, or a figurative one.

There are some apologists who state that Elisha shaved off his hair as a sign of mourning, ignoring that God forbade such demonstrations by the Jews (Lev. 21:5).

“And [Elisha] turned around and saw [the youths] and he cursed them in the name of YHVH…”

Cursing in the name of YHVH isn’t usually said, and as an expression of power, he invokes the great name to cause a supernatural event to occur:

“…and two she-bears came out of the forest…” The Hebrew word “and they came out” is in the feminine form. There is an interesting comment by the Redak, based on the Talmud (Sotah 47a) which claims that Beth El was not an area where there were forests or bears, so God must have cause them to appear. I personally would like to imagine the two golden calves being transformed into the bears and attacking. But unfortunately, none of that is in the text!

“…and [the bears] tore apart 42 children.”

There are two important points here.

First, the text uses the term “children” (yeledim) rather than “youths” (na’arim). In Hebrew, when there is a mixed group, as in na’ar, you can have the very young and the teens all mixed together and be referred to as na’arim collectively. It didn’t say how many were in the initial group. Let’s say there were 100 and all of the older kids got away. It’s impossible to say.

There is another killing of 42 that takes place in 10:14. These were but some of the people that God told Elijah that Jehu would kill, and if he failed, then Elisha would do it. I am not saying that they are directly connected, but I do find the duplication of numbers interesting.

Summary

The story of Elisha and the bears is a story of a new prophet who is making a name for himself and his God and demanding that others respect his God and His prophet equally. Respect one and you respect both Disrespect one and you disrespect both and you deserve to die.

The fact that some people have a problem with children being killed by a bear is a response to YHVH being part of this action is the reason for the large number of apologetics for this short story. This story wasn’t written for them, obviously.