(March 2, 2014 at 2:32 pm)bluemonday Wrote: 2 Kings 2:23-24, “Then he 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!” 24 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.”
I love how the murderous, bloodthirsty bears are female as well. Females really can't do anything good in the Bible, can they?
I've heard Christians explain before that 42 is a large number of people, and so God sent the bears to protect the man. So...people are murdered and raped every day, and have been since time began, and yet we see no angry, mauling bears to protect these people?
May I also add, in the passage, the man does not ask for help from God in a frightened way - he curses them, which implies to me he did this in anger, not fear.
Also, how is it even possible that the bears caught ALL 42 of these kids? If two bears came out of nowhere and began to attack your group, wouldn't you run for safety?
The bears would have to be pretty bloody quick to kill 21 each before any of them had time to flee in terror. And we all know fear makes you run fast.
I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking but how can anyone possibly defend or explain this passage?
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Elisha was the Emperor's (aka God) emissary on official business. When the kids insulted him they were insulting the Emperor. Elisha sicced his guards on them and the guards killed the offensive kids.
But as an aside, there were bears in that area in ancient times. The writer probably used bears as a metaphor for how ferociously the guards attacked the kids.
