Verified answer

It means children, dude.

Same rooted words include "Leyda" (birth), "Nolad" (was born) and so on.

It just means "Gods" without being assigned a number. But, it is of course composed of three co-eternal persons, God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. That is the word ELOHIM! In the beginning, Elohim bara, or Gods spoke Gen 1:1. Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 14:7

It means youths. Can be boys, can be young unmarried men. The word for a young boy or child is "na'ar.' So in the passage you quote, it could go either way, but they are not understood to be in a state of childlike innocence - for that the word na'arim would be used.

As a side note, the Torah uses both the word "yeled" and 'na'ar" in the story of the binding of Isaac. Yet according to Jewish tradition, the boy was actually 37 years old (based on Sarah's ages when she conceived him, and when she died - immediately after she heard about the sacrificial story). So there is precedent in the word not being used to mean a mere child.

Schmo's translation is from the Stone edition which is probably the most used Tanach among Jews.

Young lads and children could be much the same. "Young men" married at very early ages at the time (early teens). It's very possible there were *gangs* at the time. People really haven't changed that much since then.

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The answer to this is broader than the definition of the word. In general, societies which have not undergone the Great Transformation divide the human lifetime into pre- and post-marital stages rather than childhood, adolescence and adulthood, though they do make finer distinctions too. So the answer is likely to be that it refers to unmarried male persons without reference to their ages as such, like the English word "knave" or the Romany word "chav". So in other words it means "chav"!

in modern hebrew yeled is a child or a boy

comes from the same root as birth leyda

at any rate elisha was known for over reacting and abusing the power given to him. he also burnt a bunch of soldiers who came to escort him to the king.

definitely not a nice guy.

yeah yeladim means children.

Im looking now in my Tanach that has Hebrew on one side, English on the other, to see how they translated it. Ok, it's translated as "young lads".

Here is what it says in total:

(23) He went up there to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some young lads came out from the city and mocked him, saying to him, "Go on up Baldhead! Go on up, Baldhead!"

(24) He turned around and saw* them, and cursed them in the name of Hashem. Two bears then came out of the forest and tore apart forty two of the lads."

* The Talmud (Sotah 46b) explains that Elisha cursed them because he "saw" that they were degenerate and depraved, and he foresaw that no good would ever come out of them, Nevertheless, Elisha was later punished for treating them so harshly.

So there were quite a few of the "young lads" there, since the bear tore apart 42 of them. Which says to me they weren't very young children, but of the age where they would run in packs like that causing trouble around town or the countryside. Very little kids can't do that. They had to have been teens or close to it.

And in my opinion, they were depraved and degenerates. What else kind of person, kid or not, would run after an old man like that calling him names? Especially in a pack like they were, that's very, very threatening. Not at all some innocent little kid fun there.

EDIT: No, there are no children at all in the previous verse. Are you looking at a Hebrew bible or a Christian one? Here is what the previous verse says:

(19)"The people of the city told Elisha, "Behold, living in this city is pleasant, as my master can see, but the water is bad making the land deadly.

(20) He said, "Give me a new jar and put salt in it," and they brought it to him.

(21) He went out to the source of the water and threw the salt there, and he said, "Thus said Hashem, "I have cursed this water; there shall no longer be from it death and bereavement."

(22) So the water became cured, until this day, like the word of Elisha that he had spoken.

And then it goes on to (23) which starts out what I already typed out, the paragraph about how he went up to Bethel, and some young lads came out from the city and mocked him saying Baldhead" etc/

(24)And he turned around and saw them and cursed them and the bear came out and killed 42 of them.

Read what I wrote, straight out of the Hebrew bible. Its' the same kids. There are not any separate mentions of two different groups of kids there at all.

There is no verse prior to that which mentions children, and no verse AFTER that which mentions children either. It says the young lads came out and were mocking him, he cursed them, and a bear came out and ate 42 of them.

I suggest you read it in the original instead of a Christian bible, because you're wrong.

King James Version

2 Kings 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

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Hebrew Old Testament {Transliterted}

2 Kings 2:24

24 Wayipen 'achªraayw wayir'eem Wayªqalleem bªsheem Yahweh Wateetse'naah shªtayim dubiym min- haya`ar Watªbaqa`ªnaah meehem 'arbaa`iym uwshneey yªlaadiym

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Hebrew Old Testament {BHS}

2 Kings 2:24

<RTL>42<START HEBREW>~w]Y#p/ ^a&j*ryw ~w]Y+r@a< ~w+y^q=l@l< =B@v< +yh`wh ~w@T#xa`nh =v^T]y< %D!By< !m/Á ^h~Y^ur ~w=T^b^Q=u`nh @m#h< ^a+r*B!uy< W=v}ny +y*l]dy<. <END HEBREW>

2 Kings 2:24

<RTL><LTR>24 <RTL><START HEBREW>~w]Y#p/<END HEBREW> <START HEBREW>^a&j*ryw<END HEBREW> <START HEBREW>~w]Y+r@a<<END HEBREW> <START HEBREW>~w+y^q=l@l<<END HEBREW> <START HEBREW>=B@v<<END HEBREW> <START HEBREW>+yh`wh<END HEBREW>

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Greek /Hebrew

2 Kings2:24

And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD.

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Wayipen 'achªraayw wayir'eem Wayªqalleem bªsheem Yahweh

And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare

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Wateetse'naah shªtayim dubiym min- haya`ar Watªbaqa`ªnaah

of them. forty and two children

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meehem 'arbaa`iym uwshneey yªlaadiym

Thanx for the info.

anyone under 20 is refered to as yeledim