boy, not to speak of forty-two, to a horrible and agonising death for shouting after any one? It is the chief exception to the general course of Elisha's compassionate interpositions. Here, too, we must leave the narrative where it is; but we hold it quite admissible to conjecture that the incident, in some form or other, really occurred--that the boys were insolent, and that some of them may have been killed by the wild beasts which at that time abounded in Palestine--and yet that the _nuances_ of the story which cause deepest offence to us may have suffered from some corruption of the tradition in the original records, and may admit of being represented in a slightly different form. After this Elisha went for a time to the ancient haunts of his master on Mount Carmel, and thence returned to Samaria, the capital of his country, which he seems to have chosen for his most permanent dwelling-place. FOOTNOTES: [37] The name Elisha means "My God is salvation." [38] Gen. xiii. 10. "The city of palms" (Deut. xxxiv. 3). [39] Jos., _B. J._, IV. viii. 3; Robinson, _Bibl. Researches_, i. 554. [40] Abarbanel's notion that they meant "Ascend to heaven as Elijah did" is absurd. [41] קֵרֵהַ. This means bald at the back of the head, as נִבֵּהַ (_gibbeach_), means "forehead-bald" (Ewald, iii. 512). Elisha could not have been bald from old age, since he lived on for nearly sixty years, and must have been a young man. Baldness involved a suspicion of leprosy, and was disliked by Easterns (Lev. xxi. 5, xiii. 43; Isa. iii. 17, 24, xv. 2), as much as by the Romans (Suet., _Jul. Cæs._, 45; _Domit._, 18). Elisha's prophetic activity lasted through the reigns of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash (_i.e._, 12 + 28 + 17 + 2 years). [42] The κατέπαιζον of the Vat. LXX. implies persistent and vehement insult. The Post-Mishnic Rabbis, however, say that Elisha was punished with sickness for this deed (_Bava-Metzia_, f. 87, 1). CHAPTER IV _THE INVASION OF MOAB_ 2 KINGS iii. 4-27 "What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not, what resolution from despair." MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 190. Ahaziah, as Elijah had warned him, never recovered from the injuries received in his fall through the lattice, and after his brief and luckless reign died without a child. He was succeeded by his brother Jehoram ("Jehovah is exalted"), who reigned for twelve years.[43]