Gang of Youths Mauled by Bears!

Then he (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

2 Kings 2;23-25

Wow, my Sunday School teachers never got to this story. So the Prophet Elisha is going up Mount Carmel to do some Jehovah work, and along the way going through some settlement or other a large gang of "lads" come out and mock him by hollaring "Go up, you baldhead" and he curses them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the trees and maul the shit out of the gang so much that 42 or them die.

Now this is interesting stuff. I might have paid more attention on Sunday mornings if this had been the topic. Let's see who was Elisha and what was he doing and why did he do this?

So I've wandered through a whole buch of versions of what this story means, but most of them didn't really tell me what this story means. But let's distill this a bit. Elisha was a farmer out plowing in his field one day when the Prophet Elijah came by and decide to adopt Elisha as his son so that someone would carry on the propheting when he Elijah had departed. So Elisha immediately kills the oxen with which he is plowing and breaks up the wooden plow and roast the oxen as a sacrifice to Jehovah commereating the adoption and his new role as a Prophet himself. Well I've polwed fields and I can safely say that Elisha probably got a kick out killing those stuborn oxen and burning that heavy damn near usless plow even though it probably ment his true family would go hungrey over the winter. So here is a dude that is compulsive and dreamy eyed enough to leave everything and follow a magician of sorts. Sort of like running off to join the circus.

Then in the not too distant future(7 or 8 years), Elijah leaves earth and goes up into heaven on a fiery chariot in a whirlwind. While departing Elijah throw over his cloak aka mantle to Elisha and Elisha asks Jehovah for a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Now Elisha starts doing miracles and such, causing the caliche infestation of the local soil to go away and making the water good and so on.

So with the kids or lads mock him with go-up go-up they are refering to the story he has told about Elijah. After all he was the only one who saw it, and it is a fabulous tale. As for the bald head, well I don't know where that comes from, generally it is genectic though.

I am curious about the two she bears. Bears don't travel together much at all, even back then. Two she bears might have been a mother daughter arrangement but doesn't seem likely. Mothers bears run their kids off about the second year. They might have been sisters, or they may have been lesbian bears. Anyway they were instruments of Jehovah as he honored the curse of his phrophet Elisha and sent them to kill and maul the gang of youths. Now that must have sent a message.

Looking through the commentary on the web and elsewhere Eisha is always vindicated for his actions and of course Jehovah needs no vindication for he is Jehovah after all. Anyhow, this is the kind of story that needs more telling.