The She Bears
"And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them." This is an example of the Lord sending a sign to confirm the words of Elisha in rebuking the people. The She Bears During my speaking engagements, I am often asked about certain Bible passages which are difficult to understand. One of these is found in II Kings 2:23 and 24: And he went up from thence unto Bethel: 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. I suppose Christians for centuries have shuddered at this apparent massacre, and wondered at Elisha cursing in the name of the Lord, and generally puzzled over these two difficult verses. It seems to me these are two of the most mixed-up verses in the Bible, and I will try to tell now how I feel they should be understood. First, the little children coming out of the city, should not be understood as literal children, but as natives of the area. Many places in the Bible, people are spoken of as children, such as the "children of Israel," "son of David," and so forth. Usually we get the meaning without any trouble that the word "descendent" is meant, but here we have forgotten that particular meaning for the word children, and thus we are confused. Next we have the people mocking Elisha, and saying, "Go up, thou bald head:" They are saying "go up" because the men of God often went up into a mountain to pray, and these people are mocking Elisha for worshipping God. "Thou bald head" is an insult comparable to our saying "empty-headed fool." In the East, it is a common saying, that if anyone is thought to have nothing in his head, he is called a bald head. Now it says that Elisha cursed these people in the name of the Lord. I cannot be
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Topic: Elisha - tare Format: Verified Digitized Pages: 2 As a convert to Christianity from Hinduism, Bishop K.C. Pillai came to the Western world on a singular mission: to teach the Eastern culture of the Bible. Although Christianity is generally considered a western religion, the Bible itself was written and set in the Orient, and it must be viewed through the light of that eastern window. The Bible is filled with passages that perplex the Western mind, and yet they were readily understood by the Easterner. When the reader becomes knowledgeable of the oriental idioms, customs, and traditions of the Biblical setting, these Scriptures become clear. God called Bishop K.C. Pillai to reveal these Biblical truths he called Orientalisms. At the time of the Bishop’s early life, his native India had remained an isolated country for thousands of years. Therefore, the customs and manners of the pe