βYou have said that the she bear killed the children in 2 Kings 2:22-24 because of Israel’s sin (Lev. 26:14,22). Others explain those difficult verses by saying the Hebrew words for ‘little children’ referred to older kids, who may not have all died. Could this be so instead?”
If these were not little children, they were over the age of accountability. And since most older children are not saved, that would mean most of these children went to hell because of the sins of their nation. It is far more just to believe that they were little children who went to be with the Lord when they died.
And I don’t think there is any way to read that word “rob” (Lev. 26:22) and conclude those children didn’t die. Wild beasts don’t rob parents of their children byΒ injuringΒ them. They rob them byΒ killingΒ them.
The law was aΒ covenant, which is an old word for aΒ contract. If the people of Israel broke the terms of the contract, God was bound by the laws of justice and righteousness to keep His part of the contract and punish them in the manner specified in the covenant. If He didn’t, He could rightly be charged with breaking His Word and being unfaithful to His own covenant. source