2 Kings 1:9

9 So Ahaziah sent out a commander with fifty soldiers. The commander met up with Elijah while he was sitting on a hilltop. The commander said, "Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!'"

2 Kings 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 1:9

Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty,
&c.] Not in honour to him, but to bring him by force if he refused to come willingly: and he went up to him, and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill;
generally supposed to be Mount Carmel; and he spake unto him;
at the bottom of the hill, so loud that he might hear him: thou man of God;
or the prophet of the Lord, as the Targum, as thou callest thyself; for this was said in a sneering, flouting, manner: the king hath said, come down;
and in the king's name he ordered him to come down, signifying, if he would not, he would send his men to fetch him down.

2 Kings 1:9 In-Context

7 Ahaziah said to them, "Describe the man who met you and said these things."

8 They said to him, "He wore clothes made of hair with a leather belt around his waist." Ahaziah said, "That was Elijah from Tishbe."

9 So Ahaziah sent out a commander with fifty soldiers. The commander met up with Elijah while he was sitting on a hilltop. The commander said, "Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!'"

10 Elijah replied to the commander of the fifty soldiers, "If I really am a man of God, may fire come down from the sky and burn up you and your fifty soldiers." Then fire came down from the sky and burned up the commander and his fifty soldiers.

11 Ahaziah then sent another commander with fifty soldiers. The commander said to Elijah, "Man of God, this is what the king says: ‘Hurry and come down!'"