The Bald and the Mauled: Chapter 19, Shocked by the Bible

This chapter seems to just be a point of information, a passage of Scripture that apparently stuck out to Joe Kovacs. The passage that presents itself as noteworthy to Kovacs is 2 Kings 2:23-24. Just two little verses that read, “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.”

Kovacs doesn’t offer any correction about misunderstanding or “misinformation and confusion” as he so prominently proclaimed was the purpose of his book. There is one point I would like to point out, though. If it was just two bears and forty-two children were mauled, then it only makes sense that there must have been many more children than just the forty-two that were mauled. Perhaps it was nearly all of the children in the town. Can you imagine around one hundred children running around you making fun of you? Not sure that I understand the full significance of being called “baldhead.” Perhaps it was something that marked him as a prophet?

One other thing important to remember in the history of Israel is the town the children were from—Bethel. This town was home to one of the two calf idols Jeroboam had fashioned for the Israelites to worship. This town was a center of idol worship. It may even be possible that the boys who were making fun of Elisha were in training to become priests of Baal.
Kovacs, however, does not mention any of this. It seems he was not concerned with correcting any misinformation, confusion, or the like with this chapter, just to point out this passage of Scripture.

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