What Does 2 Kings 2:24 Mean?

(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. Exodus 16:8; Acts 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 (2Samuel 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 (1Kings 12:29, *seq.*; Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5; Amos 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 Leviticus 26:21, seq. **Two she bears.**—Hosea 13:8; Proverbs 17:12; Amos 5:19. (Comp. 2Kings 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.