2 Kings 2:19-25

19 The men of the city said to Elisha, "Please now, the location of the city [is] good, as my master can see, but the water [is] bad and the land unproductive."

20 So he said, "Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.

21 Then he went out to the spring of waters and threw the salt [into it] there and said, "Thus says Yahweh, 'I hereby purify these waters; let there be no longer any death or unproductiveness from it.'"

22 Then the waters were purified until this very day according to the word of Elisha that he spoke.

23 Then he went up from there [to] Bethel; as he [was] going up along the way, young boys came out from the city and mocked at him and said to him, "Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead!"

24 When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two boys among them.

25 Then he went from there to Mount Carmel and from there he returned [to] Samaria.

2 Kings 2:19-25 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 2

This chapter relates, how that Elisha accompanied Elijah to several places, and on the other side Jordan Elijah was taken up from him to heaven, which occasioned great lamentation in him, 2Ki 2:1-12, but having the mantle of Elijah, he divided the waters of Jordan, and passed over, 2Ki 2:13,14, and the sons of the prophets at Jericho, perceiving the spirit of Elijah on him, showed him great respect, and proposed sending men to seek his master, which they did in vain, 2Ki 2:15-18, when he healed the waters at Jericho, at the request of the men of it, 2Ki 2:19-22, and the chapter is concluded with the destruction of forty two children at Bethel by bears, who mocked him, 2Ki 2:23,24.