2 Kings 1:7-17

7 He said to them, What manner of man was he who came up to meet you, and told you these words?

8 They answered him, He was a hairy man, and girt with a belt of leather about his loins. He said, It is Eliyah the Tishbi.

9 Then [the king] sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. He went up to him: and, behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He spoke to him, man of God, the king has said, Come down.

10 Eliyah answered to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty. Fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.

11 Again he sent to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. He answered him, man of God, thus has the king said, Come down quickly.

12 Eliyah answered them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty. The fire of God came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.

13 Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Eliyah, and begged him, and said to him, man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty your servants, be precious in your sight.

14 Behold, fire came down from the sky, and consumed the two former captains of fifty with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.

15 The angel of the LORD said to Eliyah, Go down with him: don't be afraid of him. He arose, and went down with him to the king.

16 He said to him, Thus says the LORD, Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Ba`al-Zevuv, the god of `Ekron, is it because there is no God in Yisra'el to inquire of his word? therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die.

17 So he died according to the word of the LORD which Eliyah had spoken. Yehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Yehoram the son of Yehoshafat king of Yehudah; because he had no son.

2 Kings 1:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS

\\COMMONLY CALLED THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE KINGS\\

This, and the preceding book, are properly but one book divided into two parts, because of the size of it, as the book of Samuel; it is a continuation of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah; and for a further account of it the reader is referred to the title of the preceding book.

\\INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 1\\

This chapter begins with the rebellion of Moab against Israel, 2Ki 1:1, relates a fall of the king of Israel in his house, which brought on him a sickness, about which he sent messengers to inquire of the god of Ekron, who were stopped by Elijah, and bid to return, as they did; and upon the king's examination of them about the cause of their return, he perceived it was Elijah that forbad them, 2Ki 1:2-8, upon which the king sent to him two captains, with fifty men each, one after another, to bring him to him, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 2Ki 1:9-12, but a third with fifty men sent to him were spared, and he is bid to go along with them with a message to the king, as he did, 2Ki 1:13-16 and the chapter is closed with the death of Ahaziah, 2Ki 1:17,18.