The Watchtower as usual picks a couple of verses from the Tanach and applies it to the JWs. 2 Kings2:23-24 must have been in the Watchtower outline, Separation of Powers, as I recall our CO making the same point, also some 40 years ago.
But we must remember that the Tanach, or Old Testament, is a Jewish book. The Rabbis study the whole book and don't cherry pick verses out of context like the Watchtower. Moreover, if one reads 2 Kings 2:19-22 it puts the bear incident in a different perspective. Elisha had healed the waters of the town which had an economic effect on youth employment. The Soncino Books Of The Bible, Kings, page 175 says this about the angry youth who mocked Elisha: "They were angry at having lost their means of earning their livelihood, which until now had been to supply the town with sweet drinking water." So Elisha was as popular with these kids as a CEO who closed the local factory, laid off all the employees, and transferred the jobs overseas.
Unfortunately I don't have it handy right now, but another Jewish commentary said that the Hebrew word translated "little boys" in the NWT can also mean teenagers. So situation was more threatening than dealing with a group of Kindergarten kids as the Watchtower would have us believe. Since there was no unemployment insurance or job training programs back then, one can understand why these young men were angry. How were they going to make their chariot payments without a paying job? Being unemployed wouldn't impress the Israelite girls either.
But the moral of the story is that should you lose your job, if you don't want to be eaten by bears, don't insult a baldheaded man.
