He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!” He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.
Two bears attacked and mauled 42 children in a single incident.
Zoology
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The cited passage
What current science says
Bears are dangerous, but they're not action-movie terminators. A bear attack on a group of humans would cause the group to scatter in seconds. Bears tire quickly during sustained exertion and typically disengage after neutralizing a perceived threat. Two bears methodically mauling 42 individuals would require the children to politely wait in line. In recorded history, even the worst bear attacks involve a handful of victims at most before the bear retreats or is driven off.
What the text says
This comes from 2 Kings 2:23-24. When a group of youths mocked a prophet's bald head, two she-bears came out of the woods and tore apart 42 of them — divine retribution for a bald joke.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.