And he went up from thence to Bethel, and as he went up by the way, there came forth little boys out of the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, bald head; go up, bald head!
Just after Elijah went up to heaven, Elisha healed a poisoned spring at Jericho, and then cursed a crowd of youths outside Bethel. Why does a jeer about a bald head bring such an answer?
The name Bethel means "house of God." By Elisha's day Jeroboam's priests ran the place, and its streets showed the change.
"Little children" is an improper and misleading translation. Many other Old Testament passages translate the same Hebrew word as "young men." The offenders were much like the young men who hang about our street corners today. They had no respect for God or man. Bethel ("house of God") really had become Bethaven ("house of folly") when people could chase God's honoured servant with a mocking cry. Not one of Jeroboam's priests stepped in to protect God's witness — and how could anyone expect them to!
The taunt did not start with the youths. They were passing on the talk of the town.
It might be only little children, but little children often let out what their parents mean. How often you may know what goes wrong at home by what little children say. And so it was with these little ones who mocked Elisha... Now it was mockery that filled the land; there is no question of it. Elijah had gone up. Their cry was as good as telling Elisha that he had better follow — that he had better take the same route as Elijah.
Read as an insult about Elisha's appearance, the words are petty. Read as a sneer at the departure of Elijah, they aim much higher.
The mockery of Elisha contained a sneer at what the LORD had done in translating Elijah. "Go up, you baldhead" was no mere disrespect to Elisha, but derision of the God of Elisha. But these children were only the echo of their parents; they repeated what was said at home, and in the city they came from. Sad state of Israel! They did not believe that Elijah had gone up. How could they, when they lived at Bethel, which was once the place of God's altar, and now the place for Jeroboam's calf?
Commentators differ on the word itself. Some treat it as pure rudeness; one reads it as a jab at a worn, aging man — and notes that the law of Moses had already ruled such a man clean, so there was no ground for contempt.
"Go up, you baldhead!" they cry out to him, because in his person he is showing signs of decline, of old age (just as the remnant does in the Psalms, Ps. 71:9, 18), and of reproach. Yet the law still declares such a man clean and not defiled (Lev. 13:40-41). God should have found simple faith in these people. Instead they reject the Messiah's representative and witness... and make fun of his appearance. It seems they are mocking his master, Elijah, too. They do not believe that Elijah was taken up. Folly like this is not even fitting for children! Where is the promise of His coming? Is the world any different today?
Judgment is rare in Elisha's story. Where it falls, it follows one pattern.
As you read the story of Elisha, always remember this: his mission was to present the grace of God to a guilty nation. For this reason his miracles are almost without exception miracles of grace. There are three exceptions: the mocking youths who are cursed, Gehazi who is struck with leprosy, and the death of the officer on whose hand the king leaned. Each one fits the prophet's mission exactly. In every case the judgment is the direct outcome of slighting grace.
Was the punishment out of proportion to the crime? The objection is an old one.
Critics have called the punishment "out of proportion to the offence." It is not — not once you see the offence for what it was: an insult to the man of God who had gone to heaven, and to the prophet who had taken his place. On top of that, these young men had scoffed at the power of God. And we must not forget the mockers of our own day. Those who reject the ministry of the gospel and the grace of God will also receive their punishment in due time (2 Peter 3:3-7).
- Grace first. Elisha's mission was to carry God's grace to a guilty nation. Almost every miracle he worked was a miracle of grace.
- Grace slighted. Three judgments break the pattern — these youths, Gehazi, the king's officer. Each has one cause: grace slighted.
- Grace mocked. The jeer was not really about hair. It denied that Elijah had gone up, and it scoffed at the power of God.
- Grace inherited. The young men only echoed their parents. A town that had turned the "house of God" into a house of folly bred the scoffing in its streets.
- Grace answered. The warning reaches past Bethel. Those who mock the gospel today will meet their punishment in due time.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty-two children of them.
Elijah has gone up to heaven, and Elisha has taken his place as God's prophet. At Bethel a crowd of youths mocks him, and the scene raises hard questions: who were they, what were they mocking, and why did God answer an insult so severely?
Older translations call them "little children." That has led many readers to picture toddlers teasing an old man. Commentators reject the picture, and they point to the Hebrew word itself.
"Little children" is a poor and misleading translation. Many other Old Testament passages translate the same Hebrew word as "young men." In character and age, these offenders were like the rough young men who hang about our street corners today, with no respect for either God or man.
That matters for guilt. These were not infants punished for their parents' sins — though the parents are not let off either.
I have no doubt that these children had heard their parents mock the prophet in private; they had grown up under an evil and godless influence... These children had reached the age of responsibility, and were accountable for their own actions. They made their choice, and rejected the man of grace. The judgment that came on them was not only a judgment on their parents and on the godless society that raised them. It fell on them as well.
"Go up, you baldhead" is not random rudeness. Elijah had just gone up into heaven, and the jeer throws that event back in Elisha's face.
Elijah had gone up, and it was as good as telling him that he had better follow — that Elisha had better take the same route as Elijah. No doubt it would have been a relief to the worldly and idolatrous and generally wicked in the land of Israel if there were no Elijahs and no Elishas. It was therefore the taunt of unbelief, for if men had seriously grasped that Elijah had gone up to heaven, and that Elisha was one who was here on earth doing the will of God, neither the children nor their parents would have voiced their evil thoughts and feelings against the Lord.
Behind the mockery lies a refusal that runs deeper than any single insult.
It meant, "We do not want God in any way. Elijah has gone up, or so people say; you go too, and leave us in peace."... They did not want to hear about God's rights or about their own rebellion. They were glad when Elijah left for heaven, and they wanted Elisha to go too. They did not want to hear about the goodness of God either.
This curse sits oddly beside the rest of Elisha's ministry. The oddity is itself the explanation.
Always remember, in reading the story of Elisha, that his mission was to present the grace of God to a guilty nation. For this reason his miracles are almost all miracles of grace. There are three exceptions: the mocking youths whom he curses, Gehazi who is struck with leprosy, and the death of the officer on whose arm the king leaned. All three fit the prophet's mission exactly. In every case the judgment is the direct result of despising grace.
The verse names Elisha as the one who cursed. Commentators place the act elsewhere.
The judgment on the children of Bethel calls for little comment. It was not really Elisha's act, so it does not belong among "all the great things that Elisha had done." It was an act of divine vengeance, in which God takes the part of His insulted servant. He would stop any further mockery of this kind. Unchecked at the start, it might have placed serious difficulties in the way of His servant and discredited the new testimony. Elisha, in cursing them in the name of the LORD, referred the matter to God, and He acted to vindicate and protect His servant.
Readers often ask whether the youths died.
They were not at all prepared for two female bears coming out of the woods to maul forty-two of them! We are not told whether any of them died. If they lived, they would never forget a lesson like that.
Bethel's name means "house of God." The mocking came from the very place named after God, and the pattern repeats.
In Bethel, the place distinguished in the history of Israel as the house of God, we find a band of mockers. Nor is it otherwise in this day of grace. There is still ignorance and unbelief among religious people, and indifference among the men of the world. But the most terrible mark of the last days will be the appearance of scoffers among those who profess Christ — in what claims to be the house of God. For such there is nothing but judgment — a judgment that begins at the house of God.
- Grace first. Elisha's mission was to bring God's grace to a guilty nation. Almost every miracle he worked was a miracle of blessing.
- Grace mocked. The jeer at Elisha's bald head struck at Elijah's going up to heaven. It told God's new witness to leave them in peace.
- Grace refused. They were young men, not infants, and old enough to answer for themselves. Their words echoed what they heard at home, but the choice was their own.
- Grace avenged. The bears were God's doing, not Elisha's. God took the part of His insulted servant, so that no one could discredit the new testimony at the start.
- Grace still mocked. Bethel means "house of God," and it was from there the scoffing came — a warning that judgment begins at the house of God.