myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 2:23–24

The youths and the bears

The witnesses agree on the story. The interpretive questions are the age of the "little children" (ne'arim qetannim), what "tare" means, and why the curse was given.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. ADTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD

    Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    deux ours… mirent en pièces quarante-deux de ces enfants

    two bears… tore forty-two of these children to pieces

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    laceraverunt ex eis quadraginta duos pueros

    "Pueri": boys.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וַתְּבַקַּעְנָה מֵהֶם אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁנֵי יְלָדִים

    and they tore (mauled) of them forty-two young ones

    Verse 23 has ne'arim qetannim ("small lads"); verse 24 yeladim ("boys, young people").

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    tare forty and two children of them.

What changed, and why

Na'ar can describe anyone from an infant to a young man (Joseph at 17, Absalom as a rebel commander). Bq' means to split or tear; it does not by itself say that all died. These points do not remove the severity of the story; the site reports them because they are often skipped.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedNa'ar can mean a young man as well as a boy.
  • Conflicts with current evidenceThe text says all forty-two died.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Elijah Taken Up, Elisha Commissioned →Elijah walks from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan, with Elisha refusing to leave him. Elijah strikes the river with his cloak and they cross on dry ground. Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit. A chariot of fire and horses of fire part them, and Elijah goes up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha takes up the cloak, divides the Jordan, heals Jericho's water with salt, and is mocked at Bethel by youths who are mauled by two bears.
  • Ethics and Prophecy: Power, Violence and Unexpected Witnesses →2 Kings contains some of the Bible's most disturbing scenes: fire on soldiers, bears and youths, child sacrifice, siege cannibalism, Jehu's massacres, atrocities in war, executions of priests. It also gives voice to unexpected witnesses: a captive girl, four outcasts, a Shunammite landowner, Huldah. This lesson gathers both.