2 Kings 1:5

5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned?”

2 Kings 1:5 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 1:5

And when the messengers turned back unto him
To Ahaziah king of Israel, as they did as soon as Elijah was gone from them; concluding from his habit, his gravity, and the authority with which he spoke, that he was a prophet of the Lord, and especially from his knowledge of them, and of what they were sent about: he said unto them, why are ye now turned back?
for, by the time they had been gone, he knew they could never have been at Ekron and returned.

2 Kings 1:5 In-Context

3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are on your way to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’

4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’” So Elijah departed.

5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned?”

6 They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’”

7 The king asked them, “What sort of man came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?”