2 Kings 2:24

_AND HE TURNED BACK, AND LOOKED ON THEM, AND CURSED THEM IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. AND THERE CAME FORTH TWO SHE BEARS OUT OF THE WOOD, AND TARE FORTY AND TWO CHILDREN OF THEM._ He ... cursed them in the name of the Lord. Not in a fit of irritation, or from an impulse of vindictive resentment, but as the minister of God, solemnly in His name pre-intimated the awful fate which, as a providential judgment, was about to overtake these idolaters. THERE CAME FORTH TWO SHE-BEARS. They belonged to the Ursus Syriacus, the Palestine representative of the Ursus Arctos of north Europe. It was found by Hemprich and Ehrenberg on one of the summits of Lebanon; and according to Dr. Thomson ('Land and Book'), it is still found on the high mountains of that part of the country. The appalling judgment that befell them was God's interference to uphold His newly invested prophet....

19-25 Observe the miracle of healing the waters. Prophets should make every place to which they come better for them, endeavouring to sweeten bitter spirits, and to make barren souls fruitful, by the word of God, which is like the salt cast into the water by Elisha. It was an apt emblem of the effect produced by the grace of God on the sinful heart of man. Whole families, towns, and cities, sometimes have a new appearance through the preaching of the gospel; wickedness and evil have been changed into fruitfulness in the works of righteousness, which are, through Christ, to the praise and glory of God. Here is a curse on the youths of Bethel, enough to destroy them; it was not a curse causeless, for it was Elisha's character, as God's prophet, that they abused. They bade him "go up," reflecting on the taking up of Elijah into heaven. The prophet acted by Divine impulse. If the Holy Spiri...

On this occasion only do we find Elisha a minister of vengeance. Perhaps it was necessary to show, at the outset of his career as a prophet, that he too, so mild and peaceful could, like Elijah, wield the terrors of God’s judgments (1 Kings 19:19 note). The persons really punished were, not so much the children, as the wicked parents 2 Kings 2:23, whose mouth-pieces the children were, and who justly lost the gift of offspring of which they had shown themselves unworthy....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 2:1 THE REMOVAL OF ELIJAH FROM EARTH, AND SOME EARLY MIRACLES OF ELISHA. The great prophet of Israel was to have a departure from earth as marvelous as his life had been. Ewald's words, though not intended in an historical, but only in a literary sense, embody very forcibly what the humble believer may accept as the actual _rationale_ of the occurrence related in 2 Kings 2:1 : "An earthly career which had no equal in the purity of its devotion to the service of Jehovah, and was at the same time consummated by such powerful efforts to promote the

AND HE TURNED BACK, AND LOOKED ON THEM,.... With a stern countenance, thereby reproving them, and in order to intimidate them, and make them ashamed, and cause them to leave off, but to no purpose; they repeated their mockeries with great vehemence: AND CURSED THEM IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; moved thereunto, not from passion and a spirit of revenge, but by an impulse of the Spirit of God: AND THERE CAME FORTH TWO SHE BEARS OUT OF THE WOOD; which are fiercest, and especially when bereaved of their whelps, as these might be; the wood seems to be near to Bethel, perhaps in the wilderness of Bethel, of which see Joshua 8:15, and Reland y thinks it is the same with the wood of Ephraim, 2 Samuel 18:6, though the Jews, to increase the miracle, say z there was no wood at all, and,

II. THE PROPHET ELISHA 1. The Beginning of His Ministry CHAPTER 2:12-25 _ 1. The mantle used (2 Kings 2:12)_ 2. The sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:15) 3. The healing of Jericho's waters (2 Kings 2:19) 4. Judgment upon the scoffers (2 Kings 2:23) Both Elijah and Elisha are types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names indicate this. Elijah means “my God is Jehovah,” and Elisha, “my God is salvation.” Suffering, affliction and rejection are prominent in the life of Elijah, but it ended for him by being taken into heaven. It foreshadows the path of Him who was rejected by His own, cast

2 KINGS 1:1 TO 2 KINGS 2:25. LAST DAYS AND ASCENSION OF ELIJAH: ELISHA ESTABLISHED AS HIS SUCCESSOR. Here we have perhaps a third Elijah narrative, in which the prophet is represented as playing a part scarcely worthy of the Elijah of 1 Kings 17-19 or 21, who in the first section represents Yahweh against the Tyrian Baal, whereas in the latter he stands for righteousness opposed to legalised violence. Here the king's offence is that he sent to a Philistine oracle instead of inquiring of Yahweh, and his soldiers are punished by fire for summoning the prophet to surrender. The spelling of the prophet's name in Hebrew differs from that in the rest of the OT. The story is mentioned in the Gospel (Luke 9:54). With ch. 2 we seem to en

BEARS. See 1 Samuel 17:34. CHILDREN. progeny. Not the same word as 2 Kings 2:23....

_And he turned back, and looked on them_ R.V. AND HE LOOKED BEHIND HIM AND SAW THEM. The young lads had come forth from the city, and Elisha had, as it seems, passed by them, before they began their mockery. The word translated -turned" in A.V. is used specially of turning the face toward any object. It is so rendered by A.V. in Genesis 18:22, -And the men _turned their faces_". Elisha turned about and saw in them the malice and evil spirit of their parents and kindred. _and cursed them in the name of the Lord_ It was not to avenge himself. Their insult to him was but a symptom of their hatred of all that was connected with the pure worship of Jehovah. It was as Jehovah's servant and in vindication of Jehovah's honour that Elisha invoked a curse upon the revilers. -God and His seer looked through these children at the parents, at all Israel. He would punish the parents...

DISCOURSE: 360 ELISHA MOCKED BY THE CHILDREN 2 Kings 2:23. _And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them_. THOUGH the ministry of the word in its original purpose was intended only for the happiness of man, it but too frequently proves an occasion of his more aggravated misery. That great Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to enlighten and save the world, was “set no less for the fall, than for the rising, of many in Israel.” In like manner St. Paul was to some “a savour of life unto life; but to others, a savour of death unto death.”