(air whooshing)

- Welcome to The Superbook Show.

And today's reserve Bible bite,

we take on one of the wildeststories from the Bible.

From 2 Kings, Elisha leftand headed towards Bethel.

Along the way, some boysstarted making fun of Elisha

by saying, "Go awaybaldy, get out of here."

Elisha turned aroundand stared at the boys.

Then he cursed them inthe name of the Lord.

Right away, two beers ran out of the woods

and ripped to pieces 42 of the boys.

Wowza.

(air whooshing)

Okay, so some little kids make a joke

about Elisha being bald

and he had some bears kill them?

Overreact much?

Why would God allow thesepoor kids to be killed,

just because Elisha's pride was hurt?

Besides, it's not much of an insult.

Bald is beautiful.

The Rock, Jean-Luc Picard, Gizmo,

or maybe there's more going on here,

than meets the eye.

Let's look a littledeeper into this passage.

Let's start with thechildren that mocked Elisha.

Well, they weren't children.

This is a case of a badtranslation spreading.

The term used here for boys

is Na'ar Qaton

and refers to peoplebetween 12 and 30 years old.

When Solomon became king,

this was the word used to describe him.

Not a couple small children then,

but a gang of young men.

Now let's look at where this takes place.

Elisha's going to Bethel.

This is a worship center,

but not just any worship.

This is a place to go

instead of worshiping atthe temple in Jerusalem.

And it included idols.

Kings Jeroboam put a golden calf in Bethel

telling people to worship the calf.

Some scholars believe that the people

who harassed Elijah were priest

from the idolatrous temple.

No matter who they were,

Elisha was in dangerous territory.

A place where people donot like the God he serves.

Elisha's predecessor, Elijah,

was often attacked by theking and his followers.

- Then bring me the manresponsible for this drought.

- And if you find anyother prophets of the Lord,

kill them.

- Search everywhere,

but find Elijah.

- So Elisha, an enemy territoryis surrounded by these men.

And by the insult, get out of your baldy.

Get out, might be bettertranslated to go up or fly away.

Elijah the prophet, hadjust gone up into heaven.

The words used to describe his going up

are the same words the youngmen used to turn Elisha.

Telling Elisha to go up

sounds a lot like get off to heaven

or go and die.

Not nice.

So what about calling him baldy?

All right, we definitely get bizarre here.

Maybe Elisha was bald

or maybe he just shaved hishead in mourning for Elijah

or maybe there's more here.

Elijah himself, was describedas the lord of hair.

Apparently, he had a lot of hair.

Now, Elijah was gone

and Elisha has taken over.

So by calling the new guy, baldy,

maybe they're saying,

"Hey dude, you don't havethe hairy guy any more.

You don't have his power.

You don't have his authority."

So, more of a challenge to Elisha

than an insult.

Again, more of a threat.

Know how many people were surrounding

and taunting Elisha?

When the bears come out,

they kill not two, not three

but 42 men.

Elisha, all alone was surrounded

by a mob, threatening his life.

A very different picturefrom a couple of kids

poking fun out of a balding man.

This was a large groupof menacing young men

ready for trouble.

But, not ready for the kind of trouble

the true prophet of God can bring.

So what do we learn from this story?

Fall is beautiful,

stay away from bears

and God will not be mocked.

His word is forever alive.

(air whooshing)

Wanna learn more about the Bible

and all this bizarreness?

Head over to thesuperbookshow.com

to experience more Superbook Show,

More Chris, Joy and Gizmo

and more deep dives into the Bible.

While there, downloadthe Superbook Bible app

and look up this story for yourself.

See you next time.

(air whooshing)