2 Kings 2:24

And he turned back, and looked on them R.V. And he looked behind him and saw them. The young lads had come forth from the city, and Elisha had, as it seems, passed by them, before they began their mockery. The word translated -turned" in A.V. is used specially of turning the face toward any object. It is so rendered by A.V. in Genesis 18:22, -And the men turned their faces". Elisha turned about and saw in them the malice and evil spirit of their parents and kindred.

and cursed them in the name of the Lord It was not to avenge himself. Their insult to him was but a symptom of their hatred of all that was connected with the pure worship of Jehovah. It was as Jehovah's servant and in vindication of Jehovah's honour that Elisha invoked a curse upon the revilers. -God and His seer looked through these children at the parents, at all Israel. He would punish the parents" misnurturing their children, with the death of those children which they had mistaught" (Bp Hall).

two she bears Of the prevalence of wild beasts in the immediate neighbourhood of cities we have indications in the history of David who slew a lion and a bear as he was keeping his father's flock (1 Samuel 17:36), and in the story of the disobedient prophet who was torn by a lion near this very city of Bethel (1 Kings 13:24).

tare forty and two The punishment would touch the parents in a way which nothing else could have done.