The enemies of the Holy Bible (mainly neo-paganists) strive to locate passages in the Holy Bible by which they can supposedly similate the God of Christians with their own, false (and criminal) “gods”.

With their careless and superficial reading, their aim is to maliciously distort the meaning of the Biblical narrations – one such example being the narration pertaining to the prophet Elisha that we will analyse in this article.

These enemies of the truth quote the following passage, then proceed to intentionally misinterpret it.

After the miracle of restoring the polluted water of the city by Elisha (2 Kings 2:1-21):

"And the waters were healed, up until this day, according to the command of Elisha which he spoke. And from there, he went up to Bethel. And as he ascended along the way, some youngsters came out of the city and mocked him, saying to him, “Climb, bald man, climb!" And he gestured after them and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And, behold, two bears came out onto the road, and killed forty two of the youngsters. And he went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there, he returned to Samaria." (2 Kings 2:22-25)

So... the enemies of the truth maliciously comment along the lines of: "What kind of prophet is he that you believe him, who killed those little children just because they called him ‘bald man’?"

However, in their fanatic anti-Christian ignorance, they disregard certain important details:

1. Nowhere does the text specify that the old (=bald) prophet physically attacked and killed forty-two (!!!!) youngsters. He uttered a curse over them for their rude and disrespectful behaviour, but he most certainly did NOT go on a killing rampage – per the fanatics’ false impressions.

2. So, what was the curse about? A curse entails a request for God to withdraw His protection from guilty individuals. And that is is exactly what happened. The prophet “interceded" to God with his curse - to handle the disrespectful mob - and God chose to punish those irreverent youngsters, by immediately withdrawing His protection from them - which they obviously no longer deserved, after their en masse mocking of a holy man who bore the Holy Spirit.  As such, it was not a case of injustice when God withdrew His protection from those who did not deserve that gift. Protection is a gift of God, and as such, He can give it wherever He wants, and wherever it is respected. And He can likewise choose to revoke His gifts from whomsoever He decides.

3. Neither Elisha nor Yahweh Himself physically attacked those bullies. The two bears mangled the 42 youngsters – and yet, either God or Elisha are accused of killing them!  If they had behaved respectfully, they would probably have deserved His protection...

As for the neo-paganists who so readily accuse unjustly, it would be wise of them to bear in mind that...“Mother Nature” (to whom the bears belong) had killed those youngsters; that is, the one who paganists believe is a "divinity".  So if a “god” must be the guilty one for the 42 deaths, it is not Yahweh (who had created them and protected them for so many years), nor was the elderly (bald) Elisha capable of quickly mangling 42 youngsters;  rather, the one that should be held accountable is the pagan "goddess" (aka “Mother Nature”) , who – without Yahweh's protection of mankind – can be both destructive and unreasonable.

4. Those who were punished were not "little children", as badly rendered in modern Greek. In the Hebrew text there is the expression neurim qetanim (נְעָרִים קְטַנִּים), which is best translated as "youths."  **

The same expression is used of seventeen-year-old Joseph (Genesis 37:2) and is translated in Greek as "young man."

5. Regardless of  their age, they deserved what they got. This mob of young bullies came from Bethel (v. 23), a city in the pagan kingdom of Israel. This city was a major center of the child-sacrificial worship of Baal (1 Kings 12:29). Those young bullies and worshipers of Baal intended to mock the Lord through the prophet Elisha and quite possibly even intended to attack the prophet. Was he supposed to feel sorry for that irreverent mob?  Did they perhaps feel sorry for the infants that were being burnt alive in the worship of Baal?  Were they who roasted babies and drank human blood perhaps incapable of attacking an unarmed, elderly prophet of God?

Both the bullies and the critics of the Holy Bible intentionally bypass how Elisha had hugely helped Jericho. Moreover, the sycophants also bypass - among other miracles - the healing of the Syrian official Neeman by the "zionist" Elisha, and the resurrection of a child and a man... (2 Kings 5:5 1-19 4:4 31 - 37. 2 Kings 13:13 20, 21 etc.)

And finally, we need to pose the following question:

Was Elisha's curse a decisive factor in the death of those bullies?  If so, then he was truly God’s prophet, and those who accuse him become God-battlers.

If not, and all the aforementioned verses are "myths" (as some are wont to say), then the reason for their accusation of Elisha is extinguished. Because if he was not a prophet, then his curse would have had no effect on the bullies.

In other words, either there is no reason for accusing him, or he was indeed a prophet, and his accusers are impious, disrespectful God-battlers.

God and His prophets are not to blame for our personal wickedness.

The enemy of mankind – which deprives the wicked and the unworthy of God's protection - is always IDOLATRY; and its victims are always deserving of plights on account of their wickedness.