C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 2 Kings 2:23

2Ki 2:23 The judgment of God upon the loose fellows at Bethel. Elisha proceeded from Jericho to Bethel, the chief seat of the idolatrous calf-worship, where there was also a school of the prophets (2Ki 2:3). On the way thither there came small boys out of the city to meet him, who ridiculed him by calling out, “Come up, bald-head, come,” etc. קרח, bald-head (with a bald place at the back of the head), was used as a term of scorn (cf. Isa 3:17, Isa 3:24); but hardly from a suspicion of leprosy (Winer, Thenius). It was rather as a natural defect, for Elisha, who lived for fifty years after this (2Ki 13:14), could not have been bald from age at that time.