מלכים ב ב׳:כ״ג-כ״ה

ונערים קטנים. המנוערין מן המצות:

Little boys. Void of mitzvos.²¹The literal meaning of נְעָרִים קְטַנִּים is “small children,” but obviously this is not the true meaning, because Elisha would never have cursed small children. The word נְעָרִים can also be interpreted as נְעוּרִים [=shaken out or empty] from good deeds. The word קטנים [=little] alludes to how small their faith was. Nonetheless, Elisha was punished for treating them so harshly. See Maseches Sotah 47a. Radak Alternatively, the boys came from a town called נַעֲרָן, which is mentioned in I Divrei Hayomim 7:28 and in Yehoshua 16:7. See below, 5:2.

עלה קרח. עלה מכאן, שהקרחת עלינו את המקום, שעד עכשיו היינו משתכרין להביא מים מתוקים מרחוק, ומתפרנסין בכך, ומשהמתיקו אבדו פרנסתן, כך מפורש בסוטה (מו ב):

“Go away, baldy!” “Go away from here, for you have made the place bald for us, [i.e.,] for until now we would be hired to bring sweet water from a distance, and we would earn our livelihood thereby.” But when [the water] became sweet, they lost their livelihood. Thus it is explained in [Maseches] Sotah.²²46b, and see Rashi there.

ויראם. ראה שאין בהם ולא בזרעם לחלוחית של טובה (שם):

And saw them. He saw that neither in them nor in their descendants would there be any sap of good deed.²³See Shemos 2:12 and Rashi there.²⁴Some say that Elisha saw that their hair was cut in the style of the heathens. He believed that they were degenerate and depraved and foresaw that they would never return to the ways of the Torah. See Maseches Sotah 46b.