2 Kings 2:23

Elisha curseth the mocking children and some of them are destroyed (Not in Chronicles)

23. from thenceunto Beth-el Going back by the same way which he had come some days before with Elijah.

there came forth little children The margin of R.V. gives -young lads". The word in the original is that which Solomon uses in his prayer at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:7), -I am but a little child". This was at the time when he had just been elevated to the throne. So that although the word may mean -a little child" it is not necessary nor possible in the present passage to understand by it anything but such young persons as were well aware of the outrage and wickedness of their conduct.

Go up, thou bald head As the prophet drew near to the city these youths recognised him by his garb for one of the Lord's prophets. It may be that he was wearing Elijah's mantle. Such a man would be thought fit sport for the children of the Baal-worshippers of Bethel, and they were most probably set on and encouraged in their mockery by their parents. Their home education and all the associations of the place would have given them a contempt for the true servants of God. The fault of what they did lay as much in their surroundings as in themselves. It would seem that Elisha was prematurely bald, for he lived a long time after Elijah's assumption, and this physical defect the insolent youths seized upon at once as a ground for ridicule. Elijah, the hairy man, had probably long shaggy locks, and so the contrast between the two would be marked at once.