Hate to tell you this DU but *Bears in the Bible* is not what you might think it is

[underpants]

Why would God send a bear to maul children?

II Kings 2: 23-24: “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and harassed him, chanting, ‘Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!’ He turned around, looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the children.”

The message was a corrective message to address current attitudes and behavior that if heeded would ward off worse sins and greater judgment. The gang was shocked and silenced when mauled (not necessarily killed) by the bears, and their parents and community were warned to repent of their sins (reflected in their children) and obey God before worse judgments befell them!



https://christianindex.org/elisha-god-send-bear-maul-children-106/

[cos dem]

1. This is the same book that tells of how Jephthah offers up a human sacrifice?

http://www.thebricktestament.com/judges/jephthah_kills_his_virgin_daughter/jg11_34.html

Lovely story. So full of good Christian morals.

[abqtommy]

2. Religion. Meh. It's all a destructive hoax.

[backscatter712]

4. And then there's the story of Abraham and Issac...

I like Lewis Black's telling

"Abraham! HEY ABRAHAM!!! Get your boy and head up the mountain, we're gonna barbecue him!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!! PSYCHE! Just kidding!"

[AleksS]

3. Well, as long as god only had the children MAULED

Well, as long as god only had the children MAULED, then it’s ok....since it taught someone a lesson?

Can you see how I can’t help but think that anyone who believes this is a monster of the worst possible variety?

(Also, seriously: the fact that it doesn’t say how many of the MAULED children were killed doesn’t make it ok. I’m sure there were top notch medical facilities on hand to keep the MAULED CHILDREN stable and alive. )

(Also also: THAT’S the best way someone can come up with to teach a lesson? MAULING CHILDREN? I feel like my teachers and parents and leaders missed a beat somewhere because I remember very few CHILD MAULINGS involved in teaching me anything. And, looking into Ghandi and MLK, I notice that they also didn’t MAUL CHILDREN when delivering their messages. One can only wonder how much more effective their message could have been if they would only have thought to involve CHILD MAULING in their delivery. )

[blm]

5. Bears, bears, bears, bears, bears, bears, bears

https://www.abebooks.com/BEARS-ODonoghue-Michael-illustrations-Merle-Peek/20283446534/bd

[Eko]

6. The gang was shocked and silenced!!!!

As well as in major pain, bleeding, in shock, and quite possibly maimed, blinded, eviscerated, dying, dead, had broken bones and without a doubt would not be silent at all. They would be screaming and moaning if they were even able to. I had a friend try this on me once and it is a argument that shows an astounding lack of reality.

[Igel]

7. It's exactly what I thought it would be.

יְלָדִֽים, of course, is mistranslated as "children". Can be, usually isn't. Try "young men." Even Gesenius gets it right. (Sorry, if you can handle learning Russian and Czech, a bit of Hebrew or Arabic isn't all that bad.) Yeled is more like 15-20 years of age--marriageable, for the most part. The feminine form usually means a young woman servant (not necessarily, it's a contextual thang, but you'd either be called 'daughter' if the context was family or, if you were outside of your family, a young woman would be either a "wife" or a "servant". Or a hooker. Everything else was rather culturally constrained to non-existence.)

The rest requires understanding and empathy, and it's late.