2 Kings 2:24 (WEB)

Passage

He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 2:22 So the waters were healed to this day, according to Elisha’s word which he spoke.

2 Kings 2:23 He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”

2 Kings 2:24 He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.

2 Kings 2:25 He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "looked", "behind", "cursed", "yahweh", "name", "female", "bears", and "came". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "looked" and "behind", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 23's "He went up from there to Bethel..." into verse 25's "He went from there to Mount Carmel...", so "looked" and "behind" belong inside that flow. In 2 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "looked" and "behind" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.