Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 2:24
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 tore forty and two children of them.
24. And he turned back, and looked on them ] R.V. And he looked behind him and saw them. The young lads had come forth from the city, and Elisha had, as it seems, passed by them, before they began their mockery. The word translated ‘turned’ in A.V. is used specially of turning the face toward any object. It is so rendered by A.V. in Gen 18:22, ‘And the men turned their faces ’. Elisha turned about and saw in them the malice and evil spirit of their parents and kindred.
and cursed them in the name of the Lord ] It was not to avenge himself. Their insult to him was but a symptom of their hatred of all that was connected with the pure worship of Jehovah. It was as Jehovah’s servant and in vindication of Jehovah’s honour that Elisha invoked a curse upon the revilers. ‘God and His seer looked through these children at the parents, at all Israel. He would punish the parents’ misnurturing their children, with the death of those children which they had mistaught’ (Bp Hall).
two she bears ] Of the prevalence of wild beasts in the immediate neighbourhood of cities we have indications in the history of David who slew a lion and a bear as he was keeping his father’s flock (1Sa 17:36), and in the story of the disobedient prophet who was torn by a lion near this very city of Bethel (1Ki 13:24).
tare forty and two ] The punishment would touch the parents in a way which nothing else could have done.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
On this occasion only do we find Elisha a minister of vengeance. Perhaps it was necessary to show, at the outset of his career as a prophet, that he too, so mild and peaceful could, like Elijah, wield the terrors of Gods judgments (1Ki 19:19 note). The persons really punished were, not so much the children, as the wicked parents 2Ki 2:23, whose mouth-pieces the children were, and who justly lost the gift of offspring of which they had shown themselves unworthy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Cursed them; nor was this punishment too great for the offence, if it be considered that these children were grown up to some maturity; (See Poole “2Ki 2:23“;) that their mocking proceeded from a great malignity of mind against God; that they mocked not only a man, and an ancient man, whose very age commanded reverence, and a prophet; but even God himself, and that most admirable and glorious work of God, the assumption of Elijah into heaven, which makes it in some degree resemble the sin against the Holy Ghost; that they might be guilty of many other heinous crimes, which God and the prophet knew; and were guilty of idolatry, which by Gods law deserved death; that the idolatrous parents were punished in their children; and that if any of these children were more innocent and ignorant of what they said, God might have mercy upon their souls, and then this death was not a misery, but a real blessing to them, that they were taken away from that wicked and idolatrous education, which was most likely to expose them not only to temporal, but to an eternal destruction.
In the name of the Lord; not from any carnal or revengeful passion, but by the motion of Gods Spirit, and by Gods command and commission, as appears by Gods concurrence with him; which God did, partly for the terror and caution of all other idolaters and profane persons, who abounded in that place; partly to vindicate the honour and maintain the authority of his prophets, and particularly of Elisha, now especially in the beginning of his sacred ministry. And this did beget such a confidence in Elisha, that he durst venture to go into Beth-el after this was done; and such a terror in the Beth-elites, that they durst not avenge themselves of him.
Two she-bears; possibly robbed of their whelps, and therefore more fierce, Pro 17:12; Hos 13:8; but certainly acted by an extraordinary fury, which God raised in them for this purpose.
Forty and two children: this Hebrew word signifies not only young children, but those also who are grown up to maturity, as Gen 32:22; 34:4; 37:30; Rth 1:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he turned back, and looked on them,…. With a stern countenance, thereby reproving them, and in order to intimidate them, and make them ashamed, and cause them to leave off, but to no purpose; they repeated their mockeries with great vehemence:
and cursed them in the name of the Lord; moved thereunto, not from passion and a spirit of revenge, but by an impulse of the Spirit of God:
and there came forth two she bears out of the wood; which are fiercest, and especially when bereaved of their whelps, as these might be; the wood seems to be near to Bethel, perhaps in the wilderness of Bethel, of which see Jos 8:15, and Reland y thinks it is the same with the wood of Ephraim, 2Sa 18:6, though the Jews, to increase the miracle, say z there was no wood at all, and, if there was, that there were no bears in it; but though those creatures are mostly in northern countries, yet there were of them in Judea, see 1Sa 17:34
and tare forty and two children of them; it seems there were more than these; but such a number of them they tore to pieces and destroyed; which was very extraordinary, and was an awful punishment for their wickedness, which they knowingly and willingly committed, and of their parents in them, who had trained them up in such impiety, and put them upon it, and sent them out to do it.
y Palestin. Illustrat. p. 378. z T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 47. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) He turned back.The boys were following him with their jeers. Thenius says, The wanton young people, who had not courage to attack except in the rear, had stolen round him.
Cursed them.To avenge the honour of Jehovah, violated in his person (Keil). (Comp. Exo. 16:8; Act. 5:4.)
And there came forth.Whether at once, and in the presence of Elisha, or not, is uncertain. Thenius supposes that on some occasion or other a terrible calamity had fallen on some person or persons after such a mockery of Elisha, or of some other prophet (!); and that in the desire to magnify the divinely maintained inviolability of the prophetic office, the author of the above narrative has overlooked the immoral character of cursing, especially in the case of wanton children. He then contrasts the behaviour of the historical David (2Sa. 16:10). But (1) the curse of a prophet was an inspired prediction of punitive disaster; (2) Beth-el was a chief seat of idolatry (1Ki. 12:29, seq.; Amo. 4:4; Amo. 5:5; Amo. 7:10), and the mobbing of the new prophetic leader may have been premeditated; (3) at all events, the narrative is too brief to enable us to judge of the merits of the case; and (4) what is related belongs to that dispensation in which judgment was made more prominent than mercy, and directly fulfils the menace of Lev. 26:21, seq.
Two she bears.Hos. 13:8; Pro. 17:12; Amo. 5:19. (Comp. 2Ki. 17:25.) Wild beasts were common in Palestine in those days.
Forty and two.This may be a definite for an indefinite number. It shows that the mob of young persons who beset the prophet was considerable.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Cursed them in the name of the Lord It would not do to let such malice and blasphemy go unnoticed before the people of Beth-el, and so the insulted prophet called down on those young blasphemers the vengeance of the Lord who was mocked and scorned in the person of his holy prophet. It then remained to be seen whether the Lord would hear a prayer for vengeance.
Tare forty and two children of them The word for children here is different from that so rendered in 2Ki 2:23, and though the two words are nearly synonymous, “the change, with the dropping of the word little, is probably intended to mark a distinction. Wherever there is a mob of idle young men, there is sure to be a number of mischievous urchins, who shout and bawl, as they do, without knowing much of the matter. Although, therefore, there were, no doubt, little children among this rabble of young Beth-elites, there is every reason to suppose that the forty-two of them who were destroyed were the oldest ones, the ringleaders of the set, and who very well knew what they were about.” Kitto.
2Ki 2:24 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.
Ver. 24. And cursed them. ] By his spirit of prayer and prophecy: not out of private revenge.
And there came forth two she bears. a Mr Clark’s Martyrol., fol. 58.
b Luth., in Coll.
bears. See 1Sa 17:34-36.
children = progeny. Not the same word as 2Ki 2:23.
cursed them: 2Ki 1:10-12, Gen 9:25, Deu 28:15-26, Jdg 9:20, Jdg 9:57, Jer 28:16, Jer 29:21-23, Lam 3:65, Amo 7:17, Mar 11:14, Mar 11:21, Act 5:5, Act 5:9, Act 8:20, Act 13:9-11, 2Co 10:6
she bears: 2Sa 17:8, Pro 17:12, Pro 28:15, Hos 13:8
children of them: Exo 20:5, 1Ki 13:24, 1Ki 19:17, 1Ki 20:36
Reciprocal: Gen 21:9 – mocking Gen 37:20 – Some Gen 37:33 – evil beast Lev 26:6 – rid Lev 26:22 – rob you 2Ki 3:12 – The word 2Ki 8:4 – all the great 2Ki 17:25 – the Lord sent Dan 7:5 – another Rev 13:2 – and his feet
THE GENTLE PROPHETS CURSE
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.
2Ki 2:24
I. This story teaches that the faults of our youth, and those which are most natural to us at that age, are not considered by God as trifling, but are punished by Him after the same measure as the sins of men.Men measure faults by the harm which they do in this world, and not by the harm which they do in unfitting us for the Kingdom of God, by making us unlike God and Christ.
II. What is it that Jesus Christ means when He tells us that he who is unjust in the least is unjust also in much, and that if we have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to our trust the true riches?He means that when we talk of the consequences of our actions, we forget that as in one point of view the consequences of the greatest crimes that the most powerful tyrant ever committed are as the least thing in the sight of God, so in another the consequences of the common school faults of the youngest boy are infinitely great. That is important to God, and that He wills His creatures to regard as important, which is an offence against His laws, a departure from His likeness. And of this, even of sin, He has willed the consequences to be infinite, not confined to the happiness and misery of a few years, but of all eternity.
Here is the all-important reason why the faults of boyhood are so serious: because they show a temper that does not love God, and a heart unrenewed by His Holy Spirit.
Dr. Thos. Arnold.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
There is an incident in Elishas history on which, as it presents some degree of difficulty and has been laid hold of by those who seek occasion against Holy Scripture, it may not be unreasonable to bestow a deliberate and sober consideration.
The incident I refer to is the treatment of the children who mocked Elisha in the outskirts of Bethel. Elishas conduct in this instance is not what we should have looked for: nor is it in keeping with the general benevolence of his character. They who have no reverence for Gods saints, and who judge them by what comes under their own cognisance alone, would have no scruple in ascribing it to irritation; or in speaking of the punishment which the prophets imprecation drew down upon the offenders as strangely disproportioned to the offence. What is the view which Christian piety would dictate?
I. First of all, it is to be observed that God heard and ratified the imprecation.The punishment which followed was of Gods infliction. God, therefore, if we may reverently say so, made Himself responsible for the charge of severity. They who blame, blame God, not man.
Still, no doubt, the case is a perplexing one; but it is one of many in which, if we cannot give an account wholly satisfactory, we are called upon to suspend our judgments, not doubting that if we knew all the circumstances our perplexity would be removed. And this is really the feeling with which a reverential mind will regard Scripture difficulties generally. Its thoughts will be that which a loving child has in reference to the conduct of a wise parent, in whom he reposes entire confidence. Where I can discern a reason for itor as far as I canwell and good; I rejoice to see His hand. Where I cannot, I rest with confidence on the wisdom and justice and goodness of my heavenly Father. What He does I know not now, but perhaps I shall know hereafter, and the reason why He does it. For the present I am content to walk by faith; to believe, where I do not see.
Such reflections, it is true, will afford little satisfaction to the scoffer, though a glance at the world in which he lives might convince him there is reason in them; but they will not seldom free the Christian from perplexing thoughts.
II. If we cannot discern the whole of the account which is to be given, we may at least discern some reasons which may serve to explain the severity of the punishment.If there was one spot in the whole kingdom of Israel which more than any other had made itself obnoxious to Gods judgments. Bethel was that spot. But Bethel had now become Bethaventhe House of Vanity, the house of naught. There Jeroboam had set up his calvesmaking it the great centre of that idol-worship by which the Israelites were drawn aside from the service of the God of their fathers. Bethel was, in fact, to the kingdom of the ten tribes for evil, what Jerusalem and the Temple were designed to be for the whole race of Israel for good. Need we wonder, then, that in a dispensation which was characterised by a system of temporal rewards and punishments, some signal display of Gods justice should be manifested towards such a place on the occurrence of a special occasion to call it forth? Such an occasion there was in the present instance. The scoffing cry of the children too accurately reflected the infidel and apostate spirit of their parents, and the terrible fate which befell the one was a meet chastisement of the other: a chastisement which would be felt the more keenly by those whose consciences were not seared beyond all feeling from the circumstance of the youthful age of those who were its immediate subjects. If these things were done in the green tree, it would be obvious to ask, what would be done in the dry?
There can be no doubt that the scoffing words which formed the burthen of the childrens cry referred to the ascension of Elijah, and were uttered in ridicule of the account of it which had been circulated, and as such, that they did indicate an infidel spirit, and as such were punished. But they were also a contumelious reproach directed against Elisha, and against Elisha as Gods servant, and He who said, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm, regarded the insult as an insult offered to Himself, and did not suffer it to go unpunished.
The fate, then, which befell these youths was to the men of their generation a protest against idolatry generally, and in particular it held out an awful warning against a scoffing spirit, especially when the objects of its ridicule are Gods servants, and still more Gods ministers.
III. And assuredly the lesson is for us also. It shows us in what light God regards such a spirit and the manifestations of it.For it does not follow, because this or the other form of evil is suffered ordinarily to go unpunished, that it is not highly displeasing to God, and will not eventually receive that recompense which is due to it. Every lie is not visited with prompt punishment, but the fate of Ananias and Sapphira declares what Gods mind is with regard to lying; every instance of covetousness is not at once detected and exposed, but the leprosy of Gehazi has set Gods mark of reprobation upon such deeds for ever. Every instance of intemperance, or of unbridled lust, is not followed by immediate tokens of Gods displeasure; but occasionally when some startling case occursas when one has been hurried out of the world from a scene of debauchery, or another has been summoned to his account from a harlots bedhere again we are shown in what light God views such sins; and so in like manner, though every instance of ridicule directed against religion or the ministers of religion, as such, or Gods servants, as such, is not followed by speedy punishment, yet the fate which befell these youths at Bethel is a warning once for allfor us as well as for the people of their own day and generation, that sooner or later such conduct shall receive the due recompense of reward. Nor is the warning, as far as this age is concerned, a needless one.
Illustration
An unfortunate translation of the passage, making it read as if it were a troop of little children that were eaten by the bears, has injured the record, and misinterpreted the meaning of this righteous judgment. There is no question as to the right interpretation. It is young men, not boys and girls, who are intended. Comparing 1Ki 3:7 and Jer 1:6 we find that Solomon, when anointed king, and Jeremiah, when anointed prophet, were denominated children and a little child by the same Hebrew words here employed. They do not mean what the English idiom represents. It was not upon children, who could scarcely be supposed to know what they were doing, that the judgment fell, but upon a mob of riotous, profane, blaspheming idolaters, the worshippers of Baal and of the golden calves of Jeroboam. These young men, fresh from the orgies of the demon temple, and bent on the highest defiance of God and His chief prophet, who they knew was coming to pursue the same course that Elijah had taken before him, cried out in scorn: Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head! and they would have continued their hootings had not Gods vengeance interposed. But God converted what they intended should be a procession of demoniac yellings and opprobrium (for doubtless they were cheered on by the vile rabble) into such retributive wrath and wailing as shot terror into the hearts of the inhabitants. It would be a long time from that day forward before the young men, or the priests, or the prophets of Baal, would dare attempt another mob, or another insolent defiance of Gods preachers and seers, protected by the vengeance of such miracles. As Dr. Cheever observes: The she-bears from the wilderness were fit symbols of Jezebels cruelty, who had slain so many of Gods prophets.
2Ki 2:24. He looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord The word curse has in Scripture three different acceptations. It signifies, to inflict a curse; and in this sense God is said to have cursed the ground after the fall. It signifies, to wish a curse; and in this sense Shimei is said to have cursed David. Lastly, it signifies, to pronounce, or foretel, a curse or punishment; and in this sense Elisha is said to have cursed the children. The historian expressly asserts, that he cursed them in the name of the Lord. To speak in the name of the Lord, is to deliver what he commands; to prophesy in the name of the Lord, is to foretel what he reveals; and to curse in the name of the Lord, is to declare a curse which he is determined to inflict, and has authorized the prophet to denounce: so that in cursing these supposed children, Elisha acted as a minister of the Supreme Ruler of the world, and by his order foretold the punishment that was going to be inflicted upon these idolaters. His pronouncing this curse was not the cause of their catastrophe; but the certainty of their catastrophe, and the command of God, were the causes of his pronouncing this curse. See Dr. Dodd, and Morris, vol. 1. ser. 7.
There came forth two she-bears out of the wood Which probably had been robbed of their whelps, and thereby made more fierce and outrageous; and tare forty and two children of them Here the word translated children is different from that used above, namely, , jeladim; but this also signifies, not only young children, but also those that are grown up to maturity, as Gen 32:22; Gen 34:4; Gen 37:30; Rth 1:5. In this extraordinary punishment, inflicted evidently by the hand of God on these young persons, we have demonstration, that the curse which the prophet denounced against them was not owing, as some have supposed, to the peevishness of his temper, or the ebullition of his anger: for though his rage had been ever so furious, it would not have supplied him with power to command these savage creatures to leave the woods at an instant, and to come to a place they did not frequent, as a public road must be supposed to be, in order to destroy these insolent youths. As his curse would have had no effect had it proceeded from a peevish temper, or from the violence of his passion, we have no just cause, from his cursing them, to suspect that he was actuated by any such principle. No: it was in the name of the Lord; not from any revengeful passion, but by the motion of Gods Spirit, and by Gods command and commission that he denounced the curse: and God caused the punishment to follow, partly to show his displeasure at such profaneness and malignity of mind against God, and his cause, and worship, as these youths were guilty of, for the terror and caution of all other ungodly persons, who abounded in that place; partly to vindicate the honour and maintain the authority of his prophets; and particularly of Elisha, now especially in the beginning of his sacred ministry; and partly to convince the people of the heinousness of idolatry, and to recover them to that purity of worship which the law was peculiarly intended to preserve.
Upon the whole, it appears that the persons who mocked Elijah were not infants, but arrived to years of maturity; that they did not insult him by chance, but by design; that they went out in great crowds on purpose; that they mocked him because he was the prophet of the true God, from whom they had apostatized; and that he did not wish their untimely end from a principle of revenge, but only predicted it as a prophet. The punishment will appear just, if we consider the time, place, persons, and all the circumstances of the case. These young persons might be guilty of many other heinous crimes, known to God and his prophet, besides that here recorded: they were at least guilty of idolatry, which by Gods law deserved death: add to this, that the idolatrous parents were punished in their children; and that if any of these children were more innocent, God might have mercy on their souls, and then the death they suffered was not a misery, but a real blessing to them, taking them away from that education which was very likely to expose them, not only to temporal, but eternal destruction.
2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and {n} 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.
(n) Perceiving their malicious heart against the Lord and his word, he asks God to avenge the injury done to him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes