Bears Maul 42 Boys Who Called Elisha “Baldhead”, Essay Example

When one reads 2 Kings 23-24 for the first time, it may seem like mauling children was not a necessary disciplinary measure to take against children. Spanking them could have been a better solution, one may say. However, the death of 42 people in God’s hands means that this was not merely a simple matter of a man being made fun of on account of his baldness. In one way, this whole thing could have been about something that could possibly have been organized and premeditated. It could have been a matter of religious persecution rather than simply ridicule.

In Romans 6:23, the bible says that the wages of sin is death. It is not true to say that the children were unfortunate so as to face death on account of mocking an old man. Rather, it is better to say that humankind has been extremely fortunate not to have been mauled by bears regardless of the magnitude of his sins.

According to Williams, it is rather disturbing that children who one might consider innocent had to be killed for merely poking fun at an old man’s baldness (101). However, before one makes a harsh judgment, it is worth noting that the translation of the Hebrew expression neurim qetannim as “little children” in King James Version of the bible is rather unfortunate. The Hebrew expression should have been accurately translated as “young men” or “young lads”.

One of the words in this expression was used to describe Isaac during sacrifice in the book of Genesis 22:12 during which time he was about twenty years old. Batty observes that the same word was used in Genesis 37:2 to describe Joseph as well as in 1 Kings 20:14-15 to describe army men, whose age ranged between 12 and 30 years (188).

According to 1 Kings 19:19, Elisha’s age was similar to that of the young adults who were killed by bears. When he was anointed by Elijah, he was living together with his parents and used to plow the fields using oxen. Upon anointment, he bid his parents farewell by kissing them. In this regard, he could not be a balding old man. Most certainly, he was a young adult. The term “baldhead” can best be used to refer to lepers who used to always shave their heads completely and who many people considered outcasts.

These young men were doing more than merely poking fun at God’s prophet. According to Leviticus 26:21-22, God gave a stern warning that anyone who showed hostility towards Him would receive punishment that was 7 times harsher and that his children would be eaten by wild animals. The implication is that the young adults were engaging in more than merely teasing behavior towards God; they were showing hostility towards Him! The bible gives many other accounts of prophets being ridiculed and threatened yet nothing happened to the ridiculers. This implies that this was a matter of not merely a prophet being poked fun at.

The main reason why Elisha was going to take over from Elijah, writes Bruce, is because Elijah was too weary and worried about his life because the Israelites were evil, would not listen to him and were even trying to kill him (25). Once the responsibility was transferred to Elisha, one would expect that majority of the people would be disrespectful to him as well and would even threaten to kill him. In Hebrews 11: 35-40, it is clear that in those days it was common for prophets to be sawed in half, stoned and even killed.

The setting of this incident is somewhere near Bethel. Bethel was a famous anti-Jehovah region and as Ziolkowski indicates, it even used to be a major Baal worship center one time (350). During orgies, Baal worshipers could even sacrifice their own children. For this reason, these people were very detestable in the eyes of God. With time, Bethel continued to be associated more and more with heathen worship. No wonder Hosea and Amos denounced this place, referring to it as “Beth-aven”, meaning “house of wickedness”. This tells a lot about the evil nature of Bethel’s inhabitants.

Additionally, Elisha had just finished the task of performing a miracle that involved restoration of power supply in Bethel since this land had been rendered unproductive in the face of an age-old curse. This event had proven to the Baal worshippers who the true God was and it was unfortunate that they chose to ridicule him after experiencing such a wonderful miracle. This makes the intent of the Bethel people very clear: first, they did not want to worship God and secondly, they had the intention of blaspheming God.

The bible, notes Cherry, does not say that the bears led to the death of the young men (787). Rather, it says that the bears merely mauled (injured them with their claws) 42 of the young men. It is not likely that 42 young men were standing and waiting to be mauled by the bears. It is more likely that once the bear killed one of the men, the others started fighting it off and in the process, 42 of them died. Additionally, no indication is given on the number of people who were mocking Elisha. Being in the position of Elisha is a scary thing considering that his predecessor was being threatened with death. If 42 men were mauled, it would mean a gang, a group of demonstrators, was threatening him hence the justification for Elisha’s action.

The baldness of Elisha may mean different things. First, it may mean natural hair loss. Secondly, it may mean separation of Elisha from the office of prophesy. Thirdly, and more likely, it could mean contempt and scorn because of the fact that Elijah was not literally bald. Additionally, the phrase “go up” may be taken to refer to the earlier event whereby Elijah had earlier on being taken by God without having to go through the path of death like everyone else (2 Kings 2:11-12). In this case, the youths were insulting and taunting God’s prophet by sarcastically requesting him to repeat Elijah’s transition.

In summary, the verse 2 Kings 2:23-24 is far from an account of Lord causing 42 innocent children to be mauled. Messner sees it as simply an accurate record detailing how a prophet of God was faced by demonstrators, most of them young men, ready to insult him and how God used the incident to show his respect for prophets as God’s anointed people (16). The death penalty was very much justified and is an indication of the seriousness of the crime that had been committed by the demonstrators. I see it as the appalling judgment as a stern warning from God to all people who had made it a habit to scorn God’s prophet.

Works Cited

Batty, Otto. Student Workbook for an Easy Dig Thru 39 Ancient Sites, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007.

Bruce, Frederick. The International Bible commentary with the New International Version, Berlin: Zondervan, 1986.

Cherry, Shai. Torah through time: understanding Bible commentary from the rabbinic period, Tel Aviv: The Jewish Publication Society, 2007

Messner, Richard. Elisha and the Bears: “A Critical Monograph on 2 Kings 2 23-25.” Grace Journal 3(2) p. 12-24, 1962.

Williams, Walter. Archaeology in Biblical research, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Ziolkowski, Eric. “The Bad Boys of Bethel: Origin and Development of a Sacrilegious Type” History of Religions, 30(4) p. 331-358. 1991.