2 Kings 2 · a question people ask
Were the youths in 2:23-24 little children?
The WEB calls them "youths" in both verses (2:23, 2:24). In Hebrew, 2:23 has ne'arim qetannim, and 2:24 has yeladim. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives na'ar as "boy, lad, youth" and also "servant, retainer"; qatan as "small, young, unimportant"; and yeled as "child, son, boy, youth" (tap youths). In Kings these words cover a wide range. Solomon, already made king, says of himself, "I am just a little child" (1 Kings 3:7), with na'ar and qaton, a word Strong's lists in the same entry as qatan. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, is his na'ar: "Gehazi his servant" (4:12). And the yeladim who advised King Rehoboam are "the young men who had grown up with him" (1 Kings 12:8). So the words alone don't settle an age, and the chapter doesn't give one. It says "some youths came out of the city" (2:23) and that two female bears "mauled forty-two of those youths" (2:24), and it says no more about them. These notes don't go beyond that.
The verses
“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!” He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the LORD’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of those youths.”
“Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in.”
“He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him.”
“But he abandoned the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.”