9Then the king sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. He went up to him; and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said to him, “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down!’ ”
10Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
11Again he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. He answered him, “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”
12Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then God’s fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
9 Then the king sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. He went up to him; and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said to him, “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down!’ ”
10 Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Again he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. He answered him, “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”
12 Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Then God’s fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
KJVKing James Version
9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
12 And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him; and, behold, he sat on the top of the hill. And he spoke unto him: 'O man of God, the king hath said: Come down.'
10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty: 'If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.' And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11 And again he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him: 'O man of God, thus hath the king said: Come down quickly.'
12 And Elijah answered and said unto them: 'If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.' And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
Luke 9:54(v10)When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them,…
Daniel 3:25(v10)He answered, “Look, I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are unharmed. The appearance of the fourth is like a…
1 Kings 18:36-38(v10)At the time of the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it…
Daniel 3:22(v10)Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up…
Psalms 106:18(v10)A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.
Numbers 16:28-30(v10)Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind. If these men die the…
Job 1:16(v10)While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and…
Revelation 11:5(v10)If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be…
Numbers 16:35(v10)Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
1 Kings 22:28(v10)Micaiah said, “If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me.” He said, “Listen, all you people!”
2 Kings 2:23-24(v10)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,…
2 Chronicles 36:16(v10)but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people,…
Psalms 105:15(v10)“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
Daniel 6:24(v10)The king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and…
Matthew 21:41(v10)They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the…
Matthew 23:34-37(v10)Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge…
Acts 5:3-10(v10)But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? While…
Acts 12:19(v10)When Herod had sought for him, and didn’t find him, he examined the guards, then commanded that they should be put to death. He went down…
Numbers 11:1(v10)The people were complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger burned; and Yahweh’s fire burned among them, and…
2 Kings 6:13-14(v9)He said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.” He was told, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” Therefore he sent horses, chariots,…
Luke 6:11-12(v9)But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus. In these days, he went out to the mountain…
Hebrews 11:36(v9)Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
1 Kings 18:4(v9)for when Jezebel cut off Yahweh’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and…
1 Kings 18:10(v9)As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he took…
1 Kings 18:42(v9)So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between…
1 Kings 19:2(v9)Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of…
1 Kings 22:8(v9)The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him,…
1 Kings 22:26-27(v9)The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son. Say, ‘The king…
Amos 7:12(v9)Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
Matthew 14:3(v9)For Herod had arrested John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.
Matthew 26:68(v9)saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who hit you?”
Matthew 27:29(v9)They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him,…
Matthew 27:41-43(v9)Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said, “He saved others, but he can’t save…
Mark 15:29(v9)Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days,
Mark 15:32(v9)Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him.” Those who were crucified with him also…
Numbers 16:41(v11)But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed…
1 Samuel 6:9(v11)Behold, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know…
1 Samuel 22:17-19(v11)The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because…
2 Kings 1:9-10(v12)Then the king sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. He went up to him; and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said…
Proverbs 29:12(v11)If a ruler listens to lies, all of his officials are wicked.
Isaiah 26:11(v11)Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume…
Isaiah 32:7(v11)The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.
Jeremiah 5:3(v11)O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused…
Matthew 2:16(v11)Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were…
Luke 22:63-64(v11)The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is the…
John 18:5-12(v11)They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas also, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When therefore…
Acts 4:16-17(v11)saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv9–12To wit, Carmel.
To wit, Carmel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv9–122Ki 1:9 Then the king sent unto him a…
2Ki 1:9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
Ver. 9. Then the king sent.] Stirred up thereto, likely, by his wicked mother Jezebel, who was his counsellor.
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A captain of fifty with his fifty.] To fetch him by force.
Behold, he sat on the top of a hill.] Quia sibi timebat, saith Vatablus. "Elias was a man subject to like passion as we are." {Jas 5:17}
Thou man of God.] This he seemeth to say as in a jeer; or, if otherwise, it is no better than a kind confession with a false heart, with bloody hands. The world is full of these windy courtesies, real cruelties.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv9–11Thou man of God; so he calls him in…
Thou man of God; so he calls him in way of scorn and contempt: q.d. Thou that vauntest as if thou wast more than a mere man.
The king hath said, Come down; the king commands thee to come to him; which if thou refusest, I am here to carry thee to him by force.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v9Here, I. The king issues out a warrant for…
Here, I. The king issues out a warrant for the apprehending of Elijah. If the God of Ekron had told him he should die, it is probable he would have taken it quietly; but now that a prophet of the Lord tells him so, reproving him for his sin and reminding him of the God of Israel, he cannot bear it. So far is he from making any good improvement of the warning given him that he is enraged against the prophet; neither his sickness, nor the thoughts of death, made any good impressions upon him, nor possessed him with any fear of God. No external alarms will startle and soften secure sinners, but rather exasperate them. Did the king think Elijah a prophet, a true prophet? Why then durst he persecute him? Did he think him a common person? What occasion was there to send such a force, in order to seize him? Thus a band of men must take our Lord Jesus.
II. The captain that was sent with his fifty soldiers found Elijah on the top of a hill (some think Carmel), and commanded him, in the king's name, to surrender himself, Kg2 1:9. Elijah was now so far from absconding, as formerly, into the close recesses of a cave, that he makes a bold appearance on the top of a hill; experience of God's protection makes him more bold. The captain calls him a man of God, not that he believed him to be so, or reverenced him a such a one, but because he was commonly called so. Had he really looked upon him as a prophet, he would not have attempted to make him his prisoner; and, had he thought him entrusted with the word of God, he would not have pretended to command him with the word of a king.
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III. Elijah calls for fire from heaven, to consume this haughty daring sinner, not to secure himself (he could have done that some other way), nor to avenge himself (for it was not his own cause that he appeared and acted in), but to prove his mission, and to reveal the wrath of God from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. This captain had, in scorn, called him a man of God: "If I be so," says Elijah, "thou shalt pay dearly for making a jest of it." He valued himself upon his commission (the king has said, Come down), but Elijah will let him know that the God of Israel is superior to the king of Israel and has a greater power to enforce his commands. It was not long since Elijah had fetched fire from heaven, to consume the sacrifice (Kg1 18:38), in token of God's acceptance of that sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of the people; but, they having slighted that, now the fire falls, not on the sacrifice, but on the sinners themselves, Kg2 1:10. See here, 1. What an interest the prophets had in heaven; what the Spirit of God in them demanded the power of God effected. Elijah did but speak, and it was done. He that formerly had fetched water from heaven now fetches fire. O the power of prayer! Concerning the work of my hands, command you me, Isa 14:11. 2. What an interest heaven had in the prophets! God was always ready to plead their cause, and avenge the injuries done to them; kings shall still be rebuked for their sakes, and charged to do his prophets no harm; one Elijah is more to God than 10,000 captains and their fifties. Doubtless Elijah did this by a divine impulse, and yet our Saviour would not allow the disciples to draw it into a precedent, Luk 9:54. They were now not far from the place where Elias did this act of justice upon provoking Israelites, and would needs, in like manner, call for fire upon those provoking Samaritans. "No," says Christ, "by no means, you know not what manner of spirit you are of," that is, (1.) "You do not consider what manner of spirit, as disciples, you are called to, and how different from that of the Old Testament dispensation; it was agreeable enough to that dispensation of terror, and of the letter, for Elias to call for fire, but the dispensation of the Spirit and of grace will by no means allow it." (2.) "You are not aware what manner of spirit you are, upon this occasion, actuated by, and how different from that of Elias: he did it in holy zeal, you in passion; he was concerned for God's glory, you for your own reputation only." God judges men's practices by their principles, and his judgment is according to truth.
IV. This is repeated a second time; would one think it? 1. Ahaziah sends, a second time, to apprehend Elijah (Kg2 1:11), as if he were resolved not to be baffled by omnipotence itself. Obstinate sinners must be convinced and conquered, at last, by the fire of hell, for fire from heaven, it seems, will not subdue them. 2. Another captain is ready with his fifty, who, in his blind rage against the prophet, and his blind obedience to the king, dares engage in that service which had been fatal to the last undertakers. This is as impudent and imperious as the last, and more in haste; not only, "Come down quietly, and do not struggle," but without taking any notice of what had been done, he says, "Come down quickly, and do not trifle, the king's business requires haste; come down, or I will fetch thee down." 3. Elijah relents not, but calls for another flash of lightning, which instantly lays this captain and his fifty dead upon the spot. Those that will sin like others must expect to suffer like them; God is inflexibly just.
V. The third captain humbled himself and cast himself upon the mercy of God and Elijah. It does not appear that Ahaziah ordered him to do so (his stubborn heart is as hard as ever; so regardless is he of the terrors of the Lord, so little affected with the manifestations of his wrath, and withal so prodigal of the lives of his subjects, that he sends a third with the same provoking message to Elijah), but he took warning by the fate of his predecessors, who, perhaps, lay dead before his eyes; and, instead of summoning the prophet down, fell down before him, and begged for his life and the lives of his soldiers, acknowledging their own evil deserts and the prophet's power (Kg2 1:13, Kg2 1:14): Let my life be precious in thy sight. Note, There is nothing to be got by contending with God: if we would prevail with him, it must be by supplication; if we would not fall before God, we must bow before him; and those are wise for themselves who learn submission from the fatal consequences of the obstinacy of others.
VI. Elijah does more than grant the request of this third captain. God is not so severe with those that stand it out against him but he is as ready to show mercy to those that repent and submit to him; never any found it in vain to cast themselves upon the mercy of God. This captain, not only has his life spared, but is permitted to carry his point: Elijah, being so commanded by the angel, goes down with him to the king, Kg2 1:15. Thus he shows that he before refused to come, not because he feared the king or court, but because he would not be imperiously compelled, which would lessen the honour of his master; he magnifies his office. He comes boldly to the king, and tells him to his face (let him take it as he may) what he had before sent to him (Kg2 1:16), that he shall surely and shortly die; he mitigates not the sentence, either for fear of the king's displeasure or in pity to his misery. The God of Israel has condemned him, let him send to see whether the god of Ekron can deliver him. So thunder-struck is Ahaziah with this message, when it comes from the prophet's own mouth, that neither he nor any of those about him durst offer him any violence, nor so much as give him an affront; but out of that den of lions he comes unhurt, like Daniel. Who can harm those whom God will shelter?
Lastly, The prediction is accomplished in a few days. Ahaziah died (v. 17), and, dying childless, left his kingdom to his brother Jehoram. His father reigned wickedly twenty-two years, he not two. Sometimes the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power; but those who therefore promise themselves prosperity in impiety may perhaps find themselves deceived; for (as bishop Hall observes here), "Some sinners live long, to aggravate their judgment, others die soon, to hasten it;" but it is certain that evil pursues sinners, and, sooner or later, it will overtake them; nor will any thing fill the measure sooner than that complicated iniquity of Ahaziah - honouring the devil's oracles and hating God's oracles.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv9–12Then the king sent unto him a captain of…
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty,.... 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:
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv9–11Man of God - So he calls him by…
Man of God - So he calls him by way of scorn. Come - The king commands thee to come to him: which if thou refuseth, I am to carry thee by force.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv9–10Verse 9. A captain of fifty with his fifty.]…
Verse 9. A captain of fifty with his fifty.] It is impossible that such a man as Ahaziah, in such circumstances, could have had any friendly designs in sending a captain and fifty soldiers for the prophet; and the manner in which they are treated shows plainly that they went with a hostile intent.
And he spake unto him, Thou man of God] Thou prophet of the Most High.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv9–112Ki 1:9. The king sent unto him a captain…
2Ki 1:9. The king sent unto him a captain of fifty, with his fifty — Undoubtedly with a design to apprehend him, and take away his life: for neither the untimely death of Ahab his father, nor his own late dangerous fall, and his sickness in consequence of it, nor the thoughts of death, had made any good impression on his mind, or possessed him with the fear of God: and he was so far from making any good improvement of the warning now given him, that he was evidently enraged against the prophet for giving it. But how inconsistent was the king’s conduct on this occasion. “Did he think Elijah a prophet,” says Henry, “a true prophet? Why then did he dare to persecute him? Did he think him a common person? What need then was there of such a force to seize him?” Behold, he sat on the top of a hill — Elijah was now so far from absconding, as formerly, in the close recesses of a cave, that he makes a bold appearance on an elevated place. His repeated experience of the divine protection has made him more bold. Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down — He would not be at the pains to go up to the top of the hill, but thought it sufficient to require him in the king’s name to come down and surrender himself.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv9–10Then the king sent unto him - i. e.,…
Then the king sent unto him - i. e., in order to seize and punish him. Compare 1Ki 18:10; 1Ki 22:27.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv9–11Under him; his own guards. The captain was to…
Under him; his own guards. The captain was to request him to pray for the king’s recovery; (Calmet) or rather, (Haydock) to punish him for what he had said to the messengers. (Calmet) --- Of God. Procopius and others think that he spoke contemptuously, and was therefore punished. (Menochius) --- Down. The prophets are not bound to obey kings, in the exercise of their ministry. (Grotius) --- Elias complies as soon as he had orders from God. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv9–10ELIJAH BRINGS FIRE FROM HEAVEN ON AHAZIAH'S MESSENGERS. (Kg2…
ELIJAH BRINGS FIRE FROM HEAVEN ON AHAZIAH'S MESSENGERS. (Kg2 1:9-16)
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty--Any appearance of cruelty that there is in the fate of the two captains and their men will be removed, on a full consideration of the circumstances. God being the King of Israel, Ahaziah was bound to govern the kingdom according to the divine law; to apprehend the Lord's prophet, for discharging a commanded duty, was that of an impious and notorious rebel. The captains abetted the king in his rebellion; and they exceeded their military duty by contemptuous insults.
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man of God--In using this term, they either spoke derisively, believing him to be no true prophet; or, if they regarded him as a true prophet, the summons to him to surrender himself bound to the king was a still more flagrant insult; the language of the second captain being worse than that of the first.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv9–12ELIJAH CALLS FIRE FROM HEAVEN, 2Ki_1:9-16.
ELIJAH CALLS FIRE FROM HEAVEN, 2Ki_1:9-16.
9. Sent unto him a captain of fifty — To take him by force, and bring him down.
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He sat on the top of a hill — Perhaps it was the top of Carmel, though the place is uncertain.
Come down — This order of the king was haughty and bold, and, being sent with hostile purpose to the prophet, was virtually bidding defiance to the God of Israel, and demanded punishment. The manner and action of the captain and his fifty seem to have been as defiant and insulting as the order itself, and hence one reason of the severe judgment.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–119. Then the king sent unto him] Clearly Ahaziah’s…
9. Then the king sent unto him] Clearly Ahaziah’s design was to arrest and punish Elijah, but considering that the prophet had appeared alone, the number of men sent out against him seems excessive. It may be, however, that in the brevity of the narrative we are not told of Elijah’s movements, and that he had already retired to some centre of the prophetic body; and if so, the king may have apprehended that resistance would be offered to his arrest.
a captain of fifty] One of the subdivisions of the Jewish army was into ‘fifties’. See 1Sa_8:12. Greater bodies were ‘hundreds’ and ‘thousands’ (Num_31:14).
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he sat on the top of a [R.V. the] hill] The word rendered ‘sat’ may also be translated ‘dwelt’ (see marg. of R.V.) and the definite article indicates that some particular hill is intended, therefore the suggestion that Elijah had already withdrawn to Carmel, and that the soldiers followed him thither, is most likely correct.
Thou [R.V. O] man of God] The original is precisely as in verse 13. But in the two first addresses the title was given no doubt in mockery. In the mouth of one who really felt the force of the words there could have followed them no such sentence as ‘the king hath said, Come down’. For a contrast see 1Ki_17:18; 1Ki_17:24.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–12(9) Then the king sent.—Heb., And he sent. With…
(9) Then the king sent.—Heb., And he sent. With hostile intentions, as is proved by his sending soldiers, and by the words of the angel in 2Ki_1:15. (Comp. 1Ki_18:8; 1Ki_22:26, seq.)
He sat.—Was sitting. The LXX. has “Elias was sitting,” which is probably original.
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A captain of fifty.—The army of Israel was organised by thousands, hundreds, and fifties, each of which had its “captain” (sar). (Comp. Num_31:14; Num_31:48; 1Sa_8:12.)
On the top of an hill.—Rather, the hill, i.e., above Samaria. Others think, Carmel, from 1Ki_18:42; 2Ki_2:25.
He spake.—LXX., “the captain of fifty spake.”
Thou man of God.—Heb., man of the god, i.e., the true God. (So in 2Ki_1:11; 2Ki_1:13, infra.)
The king.—In the Hebrew emphatic, as if to say, the king’s power is irresistible, even by a man of God. The true God was thus insulted in the person of His prophet.
Come down.—Or, Pray come down—in a tone of ironical politeness (rçdâh‚ precative).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv9–11The king sent unto him a captain of fifty.…
The king sent unto him a captain of fifty. "Captains of fifties" were first instituted in the wilderness by the advice of Jethro. (Exo_18:21-25) Though not expressly mentioned in the military organization of David, they probably formed a part of it, and so passed into the institutions of the kingdom of Israel. With his fifty. Some recognition of Elijah"s superhuman power would seem to have led Ahaziah to send so large a body. His doing so was a sort of challenge to the prophet to show whether Ahaziah or the God whom he represented was the stronger. The circumstances recall those of the "band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees", (Joh_18:3) which was sent, "with swords and staves," to arrest another righteous Person. He sat on the top of a hill; literally, on the top of the hill (ejpi thv korufhv tou orouv, LXX). The high ground where Elijah had met the messengers (ver. 3) seems to be intended. When they were gone, the prophet took his seat on the highest point, conspicuous on all sides, so avoiding any attempt at concealment, and awaiting the next step that the king would take, calmly and quietly. He spake unto him; Thou man of God. The captain is thought by some to have spoken ironically; hut there is no evidence of this. The address is respectful, submissive. The miraculous powers of Elijah (1Ki_17:22 1Ki_18:38) were probably known to the officer, who hoped by the tone of his address to escape the prophet"s anger. In the same spirit he avoids issuing any command of his own, and prefers simply to deliver the king"s commandThe king hath said, Come down.
Vers. 9-16.
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The "spirit we are of the old dispensation and the new.
I THE SPIRIT OF THE OLD DISPENSATION. The spirit of the Law was strict, stern, inexorable justice. "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image.... Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother.... Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor"s landmark," etc.; (Deu_27:15-26) "He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death"; (Exo_21:17) Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe"; (Exo_21:24, Exo_21:25) "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:12) "He that smiteth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:15) "He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:16) "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"; (Exo_22:18) "Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_22:19) "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed", (Exo_22:20) etc. Man was so far gone from original righteousness, had so corrupted and depraved himself, that only by the strictest possible system, by the most solemn warnings, the most awful threats, and the sternest possible execution of the threats when the occasion came, could wickedness be repressed, crime prevented from becoming rampant, mankind be reclaimed, society saved. Hence the severity of the Mosaic code, the frequency of the penalty of death, and the strictness with which the penalty was in almost every case exacted. The first idolatry was punished by the death of three thousand by the sword. (Exo_32:28) Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire, were destroyed by fire from heaven. (Lev_10:1, Lev_10:2) When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against Moses, the earth gaped and swallowed them up. (Num_16:32) The iniquity of Peer was avenged by the slaughter of all the heads of the people. (Num_25:4, Num_25:5) The sin of Gibeah cost the lives of twenty-five thousand Benjamites. (Jud_1:20:46) Elijah, in calling down fire from heaven upon the minions of an idolatrous tyrant sent to arrest him for declaring to their master the sentence of Jehovah, was but acting in the general spirit of the Law, which regarded all opposition to Jehovah as deserving of death, and looked upon the inspired prophets of God as the ministers of an avenging righteousness. From time to time some signal display of Jehovah"s anger against rebels and his power to punish them was requisite to preserve among the people any respect or reverence at all for true religion; and Elijah deemed that the time for such a display was now come. That the fire fell at his word showed that he had judged aright, and that his will reflected the Divine will and was in unison with it.
II THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION. The new dispensation opened with the proclamation of "peace on earth, good will toward men". (Luk_2:14) The curses of the Law were replaced by the Beatitudes". (Mat_5:3-10) The gentle and tender Jesus destroyed nothing but a single senseless tree. (Mat_21:19) He went about doing good. He was "sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that were bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord". (Luk_4:18, Luk_4:19) When men rose up against him, when his life was attempted, before his hour was come, he was content by an exertion of his miraculous power to withdraw himself, to pass through their midst, and go his way. On one occasion he himself pointed the contrast between the two dispensations in the most distinct and remarkable manner. It was when he and his disciples were proceeding on a journey through this very district of Samaria, where Elijah had shown forth the justice of God, that his disciples, James and John, the "Sons of Thunder," as they were called, desired to repeat the Tishbite"s act for the punishment of some Samaritans who would not permit him to enter their village. "Lord," they said, "wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" But they little knew the Master they addressed. Jesus "turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men"s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village". (Luk_9:51-56) "It was," remarks Archbishop Trench, "as if he had said, "Ye are mistaking and confounding the different standing-points of the old and new covenants, taking your stand upon the old that of an avenging righteousness, when you should rejoice to take it upon the new that of a forgiving love ("Notes on the Miracles," 2 Kings 4. p. 36, note). The spirit of the Christian dispensation is seen especially in such commands as the following: "Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"; (Mat_5:39) "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you"; (Mat_5:44) "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another"; (Rom_12:10) "Recompense to no man evil for evil"; (Rom_12:17) "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written; Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good". (Rom_12:19-21)
Vers. 9-18.
Man in three aspects.
the king sent unto him a captain of fifty," etc. In this paragraph we have man in three aspects.
I MAN RUINED THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. The messengers which the king sent to Elijah fifty each time on three different occasions were all, except the last fifty, destroyed by lightning. This awful judgment came upon them, not merely on their own account although, like all sinners, they had forfeited their lives to eternal justice but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race, in all races and times, there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others. In this world the innocent suffer for the guilty; the "fathers eat sour grapes, and the children"s teeth are set on edge.
II MAN EMPLOYED AS THE EXECUTOR OF DIVINE JUSTICE. These hundred men, messengers from the king, were struck down by Elijah at the command of God. There was no personal vengeance in the act.
Elijah was used as the organ of Heaven. God"s plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man. How was Pharaoh punished, and the Canaanites, etc.? By man. Sinful nations are punished, often by worthless kings and ruthless despots.
III MAN STEPPING INTO THE PLACE OF THE DEAD. The King Ahaziah dies; Jehoram steps into his place. "So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead." "One generation cometh, and another passeth away." Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. Thus the world goes on, and the dead are soon forgotten. The greatest man on earth today is but a mere bubble on the great river of human life; he sparkles for a moment, and is lost forever in the abyss. D.T.
Vers. 9-16.
The prophet of fire.
The act of Elijah, in calling down fire from heaven on his enemies, is thus remarked upon by Dean Stanley, with reference to Christ"s allusion to it in the gospel. (Luk_9:51-56) "When the two apostles appealed to the example of Elijah "to call down fire from heaven," he to whom they spoke turned away with indignation from the remembrance of this act, even of the greatest of his prophetic predecessors" ("Jewish Church," vol. 2. p. 258). We cannot endorse this remark. Jesus, indeed, gently rebuked his disciples, telling them they did not know what manner of spirit they were of, and reminding them that the Son of man was not come to destroy men"s lives, but to save them. But he did not mean to imply that the spirit which Elijah showed was, in its own time and place, wrong. It was a pure and holy zeal for God"s honor, and God sanctioned it by sending the fire. Only there was a better and higher spirit-the spirit of love and grace in Christ; and it was by this the disciples of Christ ought to have been actuated. What was congruous with the old dispensation was not necessarily congruous with the higher spirit of the new. Christ may have intended to suggest also that the disciples were mistaken in thinking that their spirit was exactly that of the Old Testament man of God. He was moved solely by regard for God"s honor; in their case personal anger and resentment probably gave an impure tinge to their passion.
I BEDCHAMBER REVENGE. It is pitiable to see this sick king, within a few hours of his death, instead of humbling himself in repentance, stretching out his puny arm to do battle with God in the person of his messenger. If he must die, he is resolved that Elijah shall die also. This resolve is:
1. A sign of character. It shows the thoroughly hardened and irreligious nature of the man. There are no limits to a sinner"s madness in warring against God.
1. An act of infatuation. Knowing what he did of the prophet"s history, he might have understood that his enterprise was hopeless. He may have reasoned that, as the blood of prophets had been spilt before, (1Ki_18:4) so it might be spilt again. But he was now crossing a prophet in the direct discharge of his duty, and was thus, in a sense, giving a direct challenge to God. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth". (Isa_45:9) A knowledge of the perilousness of the task in which he was embarking is shown in the fact that a band of fifty men is sent to arrest one prophet (cf. Joh_18:3) If a band was necessary, it could only be because Elijah had supernatural aid to rely on; and, if he had that aid, no amount of force could overcome him.
2. A trace of evil influence. It is the spirit of Jezebel which breathes in this Heaven-defying resolution. The queen-mother had not forgotten her yet unfulfilled threat, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time". (1Ki_19:2) There were old scores to pay off against Elijah, and this wicked woman was no doubt there to strengthen her son in his resolution to pay them.
II ELIJAH ON THE HILL. The band that was sent to apprehend Elijah found him seated on the top of a hill Observe:
1. The solitary grandeur of his situation. The situation was characteristic. We may say of Elijah what Wordsworth says of Milton, his "soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." He is a strange, solitary figure from first to last stern, rugged, unconquerable.
2. His moral fearlessness. The appearance of Ahaziah"s soldiers inspired him with no terror. He had apparently waited in the neighborhood where he met the messengers, and did not now retreat. Strong in his sense that God was on his side, he did not fear what man could do to him. (Psa_118:6)
3. His invisible protection. The result showed how entirely Elijah was justified in his confidence. "The angel of the Lord," who had sent him on his mission, "encamped around him", (Psa_34:7) and kept him from all evil. Those who are engaged in Divine work can confidently rely on Divine protection. Not till they had "finished their testimony" was the beast allowed to kill the witnesses. (Rev_11:7) The mountain on which Elijah sat was no doubt as "full of horses and chariots of fire" as the hill of Samaria was in after-days for the protection of Elisha. (2Ki_6:17) What could bands of fifties avail against one thus defended?
III THE CAPTAINS AND THEIR FIFTIES.
1. The first captain. Clothed with a little brief authority, this first captain, accompanied by his fifty men, approaches Elijah, and orders him to surrender.
(1) The terms of his summons: "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down." In the same breath in which he acknowledges him to be a servant of Jehovah, he demands his submission to the wicked King of Israel. Le roy le veult the king wills it. Thus poor, paltry, human authority ventures to assert itself against the authority of the King of kings. No uncommon thing, it must be said, in history. In the extravagance of its conceit, too often has royal authority presumed to set itself above the law of heaven, and to dragoon, imprison, and coerce those who chose to obey God rather than man. Nor have tools ever been wanting to carry out these infamous behests.
(2) A lurking fear. Notwithstanding his bravado, the officer was not without his own fear of Elijah. He does not boldly mount the hill to secure his prisoner, but stands at a respectful distance, and summons him to "come down." The wicked often inwardly fear the righteous at the very time when they boast most loudly of having them in their power.
(3) The answer of fire. This insolent summons to Elijah, in his character of "man of God," was a direct challenge to Jehovah to vindicate his own honor, and that of his insulted servant. The insult was wanton and public, and must be as publicly met. Elijah met it by invoking God, if he was truly his servant, to send down fire from heaven to consume this blustering captain and his myrmidons. As before, in the contest with Baal"s prophets, his prayer was granted, and the answer came by fire. (1Ki_18:21-39) "Elijah will let him know that the God of Israel is superior to the King of Israel, and has a greater power to enforce his commands" (Matthew Henry). Thus at length, gospel dispensation though it is, will fire descend from heaven to consume the hosts of the ungodly. (Rev_20:9)
1. The second captain. One example of this kind should have been enough. But when men are inspired by fury and hate of God, above all, when it is not their own lives they are risking, they are not easily deterred. As if this first defeat but added fuel to the king"s anger, the order goes forth for another band to he equipped, and sent to take the prophet. The captain who received the mandate had no choice but to obey, and military pride may have led him to suppress any outward show of misgiving. But it must have been with no small quaking of heart that he set out on this now doubly perilous service. Still Elijah sits on his hill, and, putting as bold a front on matters as he can, the second captain, in the king"s name, repeats the summons to come down. "O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly." Elijah from his height returns the former answer; and once again the thunderbolt descends, and scatters the bodies of this second fifty at the hill"s foot beside the first.
2. The third captain. Not even yet will the king own the folly of resistance. Like Pharaoh in conflict with Moses, each new calamity but seems to harden him the more. A third captain is dispatched with the same peremptory orders to seize the recalcitrant prophet.
(1) But this captain is wiser than his predecessors. He does what few in his position could help doing accepts a lesson from experience. He abandons the insolent tone of previous captains, and, failing on his knees before Elijah, sues for peace. "O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight." He sees the folly of flinging away his life, and the lives of his men, to please a foolish king in a contest as wicked as it was vain.
(2) This prayer robs his mission of its offensiveness, acknowledges God"s supremacy, and shows that Elijah"s life is in no danger. The angel of the Lord accordingly says to Elijah, "Go down with him: be not afraid of him." By this timely humbling of himself, the third captain
(a) saved the lives of himself and his men;
(b) obtained what the former captains could not obtain by their bullying, viz. that Elijah should go with him.
No fire descended from heaven upon him, for God takes no pleasure in the wanton destruction of human life. And not only was his life spared, but he was saved from the king"s anger, by Elijah consenting to accompany him. He was a living example of the truth, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble". (Jam_4:6)
IV THE WORD OF DOOM CONFIRMED. Brought, not as a prisoner, but as a conqueror, to Ahaziah"s bedchamber, Elijah repeated in person the terrible message he had formerly sent by the messengers. "Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." It is the word of doom, and as such Ahaziah cannot but hear it. This is all he has made of his futile attempts to fight against God to hear that doom confirmed by the very prophet whose head he had vowed to bring to the dust. The counsel of the Lord, it alone stands; the imagination of the sinner perishes. It is from Christ"s own lips that those who now fight against him and despise his gospel will hear their final sentence. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v9Then the king sent unto him a captain of…
2Ki_1:9-16
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty.
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The destruction of the two captains with their companies
Consider--
I. The steps which led up to this miracle.
1. Seeking help where it was not to be found, in direct violation of the law of God. If a member of a family were to break his arm, and instead of applying to the family surgeon who had in the past given full proof of his skill, were to seek the advice of a quack, he would be sinning against himself, and insulting the man who was able and willing to cure him. This was the conduct of Ahaziah towards the God of his nation.
2. A Divine rebuke (2Ki_1:3). God does not leave transgressors to pursue their way without remonstrance.
3. A message to take Elijah prisoner.
II. The miracle itself.
1. The fire, if not miraculous in itself, was miraculous in its manner of executing the will of God. It came from heaven at the call of Elijah.
2. It was in keeping with the recent proof of Elijahs Divine commission given on Mount Carmel (1Ki_18:38).
3. The miracle was arrested, and the prophet was arrested by a force not sent by the king (2Ki_1:13-15).
Lessons.
1. Help must be sought where God has appointed that it shall be found (Joh_14:6; Act_4:12).
2. The responsibility of the individual man.
3. When God has spoken He cannot change His word unless the sinner changes his way.
4. The only strength that can conquer heaven is the strength of supplication. (Outlines of Sermons by a London Minister.)
Man in three aspects
I. Man ruined through the conduct of others. This awful judgment came upon them not merely on their own account, but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others.
II. Man employed as the executor of Divine justice. Gods plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man.
III. Man stepping into the place of the dead. The King Ahaziah dies, Jehoram steps into his place. One generation cometh, and another passeth away. Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. (Homilist.)
On tolerance of error
Now, it is obvious that, terrible as this judgment seems to us, it was not contrary to Gods will. It is easy to say that the captain was only executing the kings orders, and that the fifty soldiers had no responsibility save that of obeying their leader. But we have still more right to say that He, who would have spared Sodom if ten righteous had been found in it, would not have consumed these two bands of fifty men if any God-fearing men had been amongst them. The kings attempt to seize the prophet was an open defiance of God, and, moderate as the wording of the captains summons seems, the tone may easily have shown utter contempt both for God and for Elijah. We may well believe, therefore, that Elijah on this occasion, as when he destroyed the priests of Baal, knew that he was fulfilling Gods purpose of judgment. But now, thank God, all judgment has been committed to Him who died for sinners and prayed for His murderers. The Cross of Christ has completely changed the attitude of Christian people towards the enemies of God. How dare we treat as reprobate those for whom Christ died! While the day of grace lasts there is hope for the very worst. There is little fear, however, of Elijahs example being followed in the present day. Protestants, at any rate, have given up issuing excommunications and hurling anathemas at the heads of notorious offenders. We are all for toleration now, and any attempt to restrain mens liberty of thought and action is hotly resented. Surely the pendulum has swung too far. We need not in our dread of religious intolerance lull into religious indifference, and regard all errors in faith and practice with complacent apathy. Truth must always be intolerant of error. Nine times nine are eighty-one, and you would not tolerate a teacher who said they were eighty. Truth cannot tolerate error without denying itself. Where personal comfort and safety are concerned society is absolutely intolerant. Few would tolerate having a smallpox patient in their house. Is it reasonable to be so intolerant of infection for the body and so careless as to moral infection for the mind and soul! Shall the authorities step in and strip off the very paper from the walls in their zeal for sanitation? and shall we allow men of known impurity of life and those who scoff at prayer to mix freely with our sons and daughters? The zeal of the Crusader who gloried in slaying the infidel is surely more righteous than the indifference of the modern Laodicean, who has not a single truth that he thinks worth fighting for. We want more hatred of evil in these days. The popular novelist delights in confusing the issues, and making sin seem right and beautiful. There is sacred liberty of thought which is the dearest right of Protestants, but it is not to be made a cloak of maliciousness. We have no right to think wrong thoughts. While all the progress in the world is due to freedom of thought, it is the correctness of the thought, not the freedom of it, which has achieved the good. Loose thinking is as bad as loose living. The man who is filled with the Spirit will witness plainly and fearlessly against both. (F. S. Webster, M. A.)
The captains of Ahazian destroyed by fire
1. See, here, the power of God, revealing His wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In all, and each, of these cases, the authority was that of God, the power was that of God. Let no man, therefore, wrest this Scripture to his own destruction, nor look upon it as furnishing any precedent, or encouragement to persecute, in our own day, the enemies of the Lord.
2. Our duty is to confess Christ before men, and neither by word, nor deed, to compromise any, the minutest parts, of His gracious counsels. We must rebuke the gainsayers, recall the erring, confirm the wavering, and instruct the ignorant; but, in doing this, we must not take a single step in our own strength, or wisdom, we must look ever unto Him, who in this, as in every other case, hath left us an example that we should follow His steps; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, knowing that we are thereunto caned, that we should inherit a blessing.
3. Elijahs history furnishes us with fresh motives to prayer and perseverance. If God hath spoken, here, in the accents of terror, He hath spoken, also, in the accents of compassion; if the destruction of two of Ahaziahs captains, with their companies, points out the danger of persecuting the saints of God, and the speedy death of Ahaziah exposes, no less clearly, the wretched presumption of the rebel creature, when he attempts to set at nought Gods counsels; yet, the withholding punishment from the third captain, who fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated that the life of himself and of his followers might be precious in his sight, proves no less clearly that, in His wrath, the Lord remembers mercy! What greater encouragement to well-doing can the faithful servant of God receive, than the protection here vouchsafed to the Tishbite?
4. Assuredly, the records of Elijahs ministry have placed this blessed truth plainly and palpably before us; may they lead us more heartily to obey the will of Him who revealed it! May the lustre which the Gospel pours upon those records, reveal more distinctly the weakness of our own nature, and the glorious hope of redemption, set before us through Christ! May this guide our footsteps in peace along the course of the life that now is! (J. S. M. Anderson, M. A.)
Destructive forces in the hand of God
The Bible does occasionally lift the veil, and shows us how the destructive forces of nature have been the servants of the will of a moral God. It was so when the waters of the Red Sea returned violently on the Egyptian pursuers of Israel. It was so when at the prayer of Elijah the messengers of Ahaziah were struck dead by lightning. It was so when Jonah was fleeing to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord: The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. It was so when there arose a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, that the disciples might learn to trust the power of their sleeping Master. And it was so when St. Paul, bound on his Romeward voyage, was wrecked on the shore of Malta. In all these cases we see the wind and the storm fulfilling His word; because the Bible enables us to see exactly how in each case Gods word or will was fulfilled. But there is much in modem history, perhaps in our own lives and experience, which seems to us to illustrate the matter scarcely less vividly. Our ancestors saw Gods hand in the storm which scattered the great Armada; and a century later the wind which buried the intruding successor of the saintly Ken beneath the chimneys of his own palace at Wells, seemed to pious Churchmen of the day to be not improbably a mark of the Divine displeasure. There are obvious difficulties which our Lord points to in His allusion to the loss of life at the fall of the Tower of Siloam; there are obvious difficulties in pressing such inferences too confidently or too far. But we may see enough, and we may have reason to suspect more that enables us to be certain of this, that nature is in the hand of the Ruler of the moral world, and that we may be sure of a moral purpose, whether we can exactly make it out or not, in the use which He makes of it. (Dean Farrar.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v9The Punishment of Ahaziah’s Servants and his Death
The Punishment of Ahaziah’s Servants and his Death
v. 9. Then the king sent unto him, Elijah, a captain of fifty with his fifty, some act of violence being intended. And he, the captain, went up to him; and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill, where he lived. And he spake unto him, in a tone and form of harsh command, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. It was not a respectful address, but a haughty, contemptuous, and scoffing insult.
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v. 10. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. This has been transcribed as follows: "If I be a man of God, as thou sayest, but dost not think, then I am not bound to obey the king, but God, nor am I subject to his power, but to God’s, who will make thee know that He judges in the earth. " And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
v. 11. Again, also, he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty, he persisted in his stubborn willfulness. And he answered and said unto him, sharing the king’s contempt for the prophet, as the first captain had, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. His command was even more peremptory than that of the first messenger.
v. 12. And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. In either case the men were guilty of a deliberate mockery of the prophetical office in the person of Elijah, and therefore of the Lord Himself, hence the quick and terrible punishment, similar to those which are occasionally meted out by the Lord in our day, and which the infidels vainly try to explain away.
v. 13. And he, the king, still determined to carry out his will, sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, but in an entirely different spirit, so far as his own person was concerned, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, with all humility, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these fifty, thy servants, be precious in thy sight, namely, by not calling down God’s punishment upon them.
v. 14. Behold, there came fire down from heaven and burned up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties; therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. He acknowledged the righteous punishment of God and begged to be spared.
v. 15. And the Angel of the Lord, the same who had directed him to deliver the message to the king’s ambassadors,
v. 3. said unto Elijah, Go down with him; be not afraid of him, that is, of the king. And he arose and went down with him unto the king.
v. 16. And he, without giving Ahaziah an opportunity to heap maledictions upon him, said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of His Word, this being the standard to which all appeals should be made at all times? Therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
v. 17. So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram, his brother, reigned in his stead, in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who was probably made coregent by his father at the time when the latter joined in the campaign against the Syrians with Ahab, because he had no son.
v. 18. Now, the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? The story of Elijah’s punishment of the blasphemous captains and their bands is referred to in the New Testament, Luk 9:54 ff. As God had a great deal of patience with the godless kings of Israel, so He, in the New Testament, much prefers using His mercy; for it is His purpose to seek and to save lost sinners. Nevertheless, when men persist in rejecting and blaspheming Christ and His salvation, they must expect the well-earned damnation to come upon them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv9, 11Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers…
Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers to Elijah
The king sent the leader of the army with fifty men to bring Elijah back to him. AT: "Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers to seize Elijah" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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fifty soldiers
"50 soldiers" (See: Numbers)
If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven
The captain had called Elijah a man of God, but the captain and the king did not show Elijah proper respect. Elijah said this so that fire would come down from heaven, and this would prove that Elijah really was a man of God and he deserved their respect. AT: "Since I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven" or "If I am a man of God as you have said, let fire come down from heaven"
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv9, 111:9-10 The arrogant words of the army captain contained…
1:9-10 The arrogant words of the army captain contained a contradiction, which Elijah pointed out: If Elijah was a man of God (i.e., God’s prophet), then his authority was from God and to ignore him was to invite peril (Deut 18:15-19). • Fire often symbolizes the presence of God in the Scriptures (see Exod 3:1-6; 19:18; cp. 1 Kgs 18:38). • Fifty soldiers was a common grouping (1 Kgs 18:4); here it indicates a division within Israel’s military organization.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9–12 To wit, Carmel.
To wit, Carmel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–12 2Ki 1:9 Then the king sent unto him a…
2Ki 1:9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
Ver. 9. Then the king sent.] Stirred up thereto, likely, by his wicked mother Jezebel, who was his counsellor.
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A captain of fifty with his fifty.] To fetch him by force.
Behold, he sat on the top of a hill.] Quia sibi timebat, saith Vatablus. "Elias was a man subject to like passion as we are." {Jas 5:17}
Thou man of God.] This he seemeth to say as in a jeer; or, if otherwise, it is no better than a kind confession with a false heart, with bloody hands. The world is full of these windy courtesies, real cruelties.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Thou man of God; so he calls him in…
Thou man of God; so he calls him in way of scorn and contempt: q.d. Thou that vauntest as if thou wast more than a mere man.
The king hath said, Come down; the king commands thee to come to him; which if thou refusest, I am here to carry thee to him by force.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v9 Here, I. The king issues out a warrant for…
Here, I. The king issues out a warrant for the apprehending of Elijah. If the God of Ekron had told him he should die, it is probable he would have taken it quietly; but now that a prophet of the Lord tells him so, reproving him for his sin and reminding him of the God of Israel, he cannot bear it. So far is he from making any good improvement of the warning given him that he is enraged against the prophet; neither his sickness, nor the thoughts of death, made any good impressions upon him, nor possessed him with any fear of God. No external alarms will startle and soften secure sinners, but rather exasperate them. Did the king think Elijah a prophet, a true prophet? Why then durst he persecute him? Did he think him a common person? What occasion was there to send such a force, in order to seize him? Thus a band of men must take our Lord Jesus.
II. The captain that was sent with his fifty soldiers found Elijah on the top of a hill (some think Carmel), and commanded him, in the king's name, to surrender himself, Kg2 1:9. Elijah was now so far from absconding, as formerly, into the close recesses of a cave, that he makes a bold appearance on the top of a hill; experience of God's protection makes him more bold. The captain calls him a man of God, not that he believed him to be so, or reverenced him a such a one, but because he was commonly called so. Had he really looked upon him as a prophet, he would not have attempted to make him his prisoner; and, had he thought him entrusted with the word of God, he would not have pretended to command him with the word of a king.
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III. Elijah calls for fire from heaven, to consume this haughty daring sinner, not to secure himself (he could have done that some other way), nor to avenge himself (for it was not his own cause that he appeared and acted in), but to prove his mission, and to reveal the wrath of God from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. This captain had, in scorn, called him a man of God: "If I be so," says Elijah, "thou shalt pay dearly for making a jest of it." He valued himself upon his commission (the king has said, Come down), but Elijah will let him know that the God of Israel is superior to the king of Israel and has a greater power to enforce his commands. It was not long since Elijah had fetched fire from heaven, to consume the sacrifice (Kg1 18:38), in token of God's acceptance of that sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of the people; but, they having slighted that, now the fire falls, not on the sacrifice, but on the sinners themselves, Kg2 1:10. See here, 1. What an interest the prophets had in heaven; what the Spirit of God in them demanded the power of God effected. Elijah did but speak, and it was done. He that formerly had fetched water from heaven now fetches fire. O the power of prayer! Concerning the work of my hands, command you me, Isa 14:11. 2. What an interest heaven had in the prophets! God was always ready to plead their cause, and avenge the injuries done to them; kings shall still be rebuked for their sakes, and charged to do his prophets no harm; one Elijah is more to God than 10,000 captains and their fifties. Doubtless Elijah did this by a divine impulse, and yet our Saviour would not allow the disciples to draw it into a precedent, Luk 9:54. They were now not far from the place where Elias did this act of justice upon provoking Israelites, and would needs, in like manner, call for fire upon those provoking Samaritans. "No," says Christ, "by no means, you know not what manner of spirit you are of," that is, (1.) "You do not consider what manner of spirit, as disciples, you are called to, and how different from that of the Old Testament dispensation; it was agreeable enough to that dispensation of terror, and of the letter, for Elias to call for fire, but the dispensation of the Spirit and of grace will by no means allow it." (2.) "You are not aware what manner of spirit you are, upon this occasion, actuated by, and how different from that of Elias: he did it in holy zeal, you in passion; he was concerned for God's glory, you for your own reputation only." God judges men's practices by their principles, and his judgment is according to truth.
IV. This is repeated a second time; would one think it? 1. Ahaziah sends, a second time, to apprehend Elijah (Kg2 1:11), as if he were resolved not to be baffled by omnipotence itself. Obstinate sinners must be convinced and conquered, at last, by the fire of hell, for fire from heaven, it seems, will not subdue them. 2. Another captain is ready with his fifty, who, in his blind rage against the prophet, and his blind obedience to the king, dares engage in that service which had been fatal to the last undertakers. This is as impudent and imperious as the last, and more in haste; not only, "Come down quietly, and do not struggle," but without taking any notice of what had been done, he says, "Come down quickly, and do not trifle, the king's business requires haste; come down, or I will fetch thee down." 3. Elijah relents not, but calls for another flash of lightning, which instantly lays this captain and his fifty dead upon the spot. Those that will sin like others must expect to suffer like them; God is inflexibly just.
V. The third captain humbled himself and cast himself upon the mercy of God and Elijah. It does not appear that Ahaziah ordered him to do so (his stubborn heart is as hard as ever; so regardless is he of the terrors of the Lord, so little affected with the manifestations of his wrath, and withal so prodigal of the lives of his subjects, that he sends a third with the same provoking message to Elijah), but he took warning by the fate of his predecessors, who, perhaps, lay dead before his eyes; and, instead of summoning the prophet down, fell down before him, and begged for his life and the lives of his soldiers, acknowledging their own evil deserts and the prophet's power (Kg2 1:13, Kg2 1:14): Let my life be precious in thy sight. Note, There is nothing to be got by contending with God: if we would prevail with him, it must be by supplication; if we would not fall before God, we must bow before him; and those are wise for themselves who learn submission from the fatal consequences of the obstinacy of others.
VI. Elijah does more than grant the request of this third captain. God is not so severe with those that stand it out against him but he is as ready to show mercy to those that repent and submit to him; never any found it in vain to cast themselves upon the mercy of God. This captain, not only has his life spared, but is permitted to carry his point: Elijah, being so commanded by the angel, goes down with him to the king, Kg2 1:15. Thus he shows that he before refused to come, not because he feared the king or court, but because he would not be imperiously compelled, which would lessen the honour of his master; he magnifies his office. He comes boldly to the king, and tells him to his face (let him take it as he may) what he had before sent to him (Kg2 1:16), that he shall surely and shortly die; he mitigates not the sentence, either for fear of the king's displeasure or in pity to his misery. The God of Israel has condemned him, let him send to see whether the god of Ekron can deliver him. So thunder-struck is Ahaziah with this message, when it comes from the prophet's own mouth, that neither he nor any of those about him durst offer him any violence, nor so much as give him an affront; but out of that den of lions he comes unhurt, like Daniel. Who can harm those whom God will shelter?
Lastly, The prediction is accomplished in a few days. Ahaziah died (v. 17), and, dying childless, left his kingdom to his brother Jehoram. His father reigned wickedly twenty-two years, he not two. Sometimes the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power; but those who therefore promise themselves prosperity in impiety may perhaps find themselves deceived; for (as bishop Hall observes here), "Some sinners live long, to aggravate their judgment, others die soon, to hasten it;" but it is certain that evil pursues sinners, and, sooner or later, it will overtake them; nor will any thing fill the measure sooner than that complicated iniquity of Ahaziah - honouring the devil's oracles and hating God's oracles.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–12 Then the king sent unto him a captain of…
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty,.... 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:
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Man of God - So he calls him by…
Man of God - So he calls him by way of scorn. Come - The king commands thee to come to him: which if thou refuseth, I am to carry thee by force.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Verse 9. A captain of fifty with his fifty.]…
Verse 9. A captain of fifty with his fifty.] It is impossible that such a man as Ahaziah, in such circumstances, could have had any friendly designs in sending a captain and fifty soldiers for the prophet; and the manner in which they are treated shows plainly that they went with a hostile intent.
And he spake unto him, Thou man of God] Thou prophet of the Most High.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9–11 2Ki 1:9. The king sent unto him a captain…
2Ki 1:9. The king sent unto him a captain of fifty, with his fifty — Undoubtedly with a design to apprehend him, and take away his life: for neither the untimely death of Ahab his father, nor his own late dangerous fall, and his sickness in consequence of it, nor the thoughts of death, had made any good impression on his mind, or possessed him with the fear of God: and he was so far from making any good improvement of the warning now given him, that he was evidently enraged against the prophet for giving it. But how inconsistent was the king’s conduct on this occasion. “Did he think Elijah a prophet,” says Henry, “a true prophet? Why then did he dare to persecute him? Did he think him a common person? What need then was there of such a force to seize him?” Behold, he sat on the top of a hill — Elijah was now so far from absconding, as formerly, in the close recesses of a cave, that he makes a bold appearance on an elevated place. His repeated experience of the divine protection has made him more bold. Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down — He would not be at the pains to go up to the top of the hill, but thought it sufficient to require him in the king’s name to come down and surrender himself.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Then the king sent unto him - i. e.,…
Then the king sent unto him - i. e., in order to seize and punish him. Compare 1Ki 18:10; 1Ki 22:27.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Under him; his own guards. The captain was to…
Under him; his own guards. The captain was to request him to pray for the king’s recovery; (Calmet) or rather, (Haydock) to punish him for what he had said to the messengers. (Calmet) --- Of God. Procopius and others think that he spoke contemptuously, and was therefore punished. (Menochius) --- Down. The prophets are not bound to obey kings, in the exercise of their ministry. (Grotius) --- Elias complies as soon as he had orders from God. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–10 ELIJAH BRINGS FIRE FROM HEAVEN ON AHAZIAH'S MESSENGERS. (Kg2…
ELIJAH BRINGS FIRE FROM HEAVEN ON AHAZIAH'S MESSENGERS. (Kg2 1:9-16)
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty--Any appearance of cruelty that there is in the fate of the two captains and their men will be removed, on a full consideration of the circumstances. God being the King of Israel, Ahaziah was bound to govern the kingdom according to the divine law; to apprehend the Lord's prophet, for discharging a commanded duty, was that of an impious and notorious rebel. The captains abetted the king in his rebellion; and they exceeded their military duty by contemptuous insults.
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man of God--In using this term, they either spoke derisively, believing him to be no true prophet; or, if they regarded him as a true prophet, the summons to him to surrender himself bound to the king was a still more flagrant insult; the language of the second captain being worse than that of the first.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–12 ELIJAH CALLS FIRE FROM HEAVEN, 2Ki_1:9-16.
ELIJAH CALLS FIRE FROM HEAVEN, 2Ki_1:9-16.
9. Sent unto him a captain of fifty — To take him by force, and bring him down.
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He sat on the top of a hill — Perhaps it was the top of Carmel, though the place is uncertain.
Come down — This order of the king was haughty and bold, and, being sent with hostile purpose to the prophet, was virtually bidding defiance to the God of Israel, and demanded punishment. The manner and action of the captain and his fifty seem to have been as defiant and insulting as the order itself, and hence one reason of the severe judgment.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. Then the king sent unto him] Clearly Ahaziah’s…
9. Then the king sent unto him] Clearly Ahaziah’s design was to arrest and punish Elijah, but considering that the prophet had appeared alone, the number of men sent out against him seems excessive. It may be, however, that in the brevity of the narrative we are not told of Elijah’s movements, and that he had already retired to some centre of the prophetic body; and if so, the king may have apprehended that resistance would be offered to his arrest.
a captain of fifty] One of the subdivisions of the Jewish army was into ‘fifties’. See 1Sa_8:12. Greater bodies were ‘hundreds’ and ‘thousands’ (Num_31:14).
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he sat on the top of a [R.V. the] hill] The word rendered ‘sat’ may also be translated ‘dwelt’ (see marg. of R.V.) and the definite article indicates that some particular hill is intended, therefore the suggestion that Elijah had already withdrawn to Carmel, and that the soldiers followed him thither, is most likely correct.
Thou [R.V. O] man of God] The original is precisely as in verse 13. But in the two first addresses the title was given no doubt in mockery. In the mouth of one who really felt the force of the words there could have followed them no such sentence as ‘the king hath said, Come down’. For a contrast see 1Ki_17:18; 1Ki_17:24.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–12 (9) Then the king sent.—Heb., And he sent. With…
(9) Then the king sent.—Heb., And he sent. With hostile intentions, as is proved by his sending soldiers, and by the words of the angel in 2Ki_1:15. (Comp. 1Ki_18:8; 1Ki_22:26, seq.)
He sat.—Was sitting. The LXX. has “Elias was sitting,” which is probably original.
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A captain of fifty.—The army of Israel was organised by thousands, hundreds, and fifties, each of which had its “captain” (sar). (Comp. Num_31:14; Num_31:48; 1Sa_8:12.)
On the top of an hill.—Rather, the hill, i.e., above Samaria. Others think, Carmel, from 1Ki_18:42; 2Ki_2:25.
He spake.—LXX., “the captain of fifty spake.”
Thou man of God.—Heb., man of the god, i.e., the true God. (So in 2Ki_1:11; 2Ki_1:13, infra.)
The king.—In the Hebrew emphatic, as if to say, the king’s power is irresistible, even by a man of God. The true God was thus insulted in the person of His prophet.
Come down.—Or, Pray come down—in a tone of ironical politeness (rçdâh‚ precative).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–11 The king sent unto him a captain of fifty.…
The king sent unto him a captain of fifty. "Captains of fifties" were first instituted in the wilderness by the advice of Jethro. (Exo_18:21-25) Though not expressly mentioned in the military organization of David, they probably formed a part of it, and so passed into the institutions of the kingdom of Israel. With his fifty. Some recognition of Elijah"s superhuman power would seem to have led Ahaziah to send so large a body. His doing so was a sort of challenge to the prophet to show whether Ahaziah or the God whom he represented was the stronger. The circumstances recall those of the "band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees", (Joh_18:3) which was sent, "with swords and staves," to arrest another righteous Person. He sat on the top of a hill; literally, on the top of the hill (ejpi thv korufhv tou orouv, LXX). The high ground where Elijah had met the messengers (ver. 3) seems to be intended. When they were gone, the prophet took his seat on the highest point, conspicuous on all sides, so avoiding any attempt at concealment, and awaiting the next step that the king would take, calmly and quietly. He spake unto him; Thou man of God. The captain is thought by some to have spoken ironically; hut there is no evidence of this. The address is respectful, submissive. The miraculous powers of Elijah (1Ki_17:22 1Ki_18:38) were probably known to the officer, who hoped by the tone of his address to escape the prophet"s anger. In the same spirit he avoids issuing any command of his own, and prefers simply to deliver the king"s commandThe king hath said, Come down.
Vers. 9-16.
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The "spirit we are of the old dispensation and the new.
I THE SPIRIT OF THE OLD DISPENSATION. The spirit of the Law was strict, stern, inexorable justice. "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image.... Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother.... Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor"s landmark," etc.; (Deu_27:15-26) "He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death"; (Exo_21:17) Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe"; (Exo_21:24, Exo_21:25) "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:12) "He that smiteth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:15) "He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_21:16) "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"; (Exo_22:18) "Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death"; (Exo_22:19) "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed", (Exo_22:20) etc. Man was so far gone from original righteousness, had so corrupted and depraved himself, that only by the strictest possible system, by the most solemn warnings, the most awful threats, and the sternest possible execution of the threats when the occasion came, could wickedness be repressed, crime prevented from becoming rampant, mankind be reclaimed, society saved. Hence the severity of the Mosaic code, the frequency of the penalty of death, and the strictness with which the penalty was in almost every case exacted. The first idolatry was punished by the death of three thousand by the sword. (Exo_32:28) Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire, were destroyed by fire from heaven. (Lev_10:1, Lev_10:2) When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against Moses, the earth gaped and swallowed them up. (Num_16:32) The iniquity of Peer was avenged by the slaughter of all the heads of the people. (Num_25:4, Num_25:5) The sin of Gibeah cost the lives of twenty-five thousand Benjamites. (Jud_1:20:46) Elijah, in calling down fire from heaven upon the minions of an idolatrous tyrant sent to arrest him for declaring to their master the sentence of Jehovah, was but acting in the general spirit of the Law, which regarded all opposition to Jehovah as deserving of death, and looked upon the inspired prophets of God as the ministers of an avenging righteousness. From time to time some signal display of Jehovah"s anger against rebels and his power to punish them was requisite to preserve among the people any respect or reverence at all for true religion; and Elijah deemed that the time for such a display was now come. That the fire fell at his word showed that he had judged aright, and that his will reflected the Divine will and was in unison with it.
II THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION. The new dispensation opened with the proclamation of "peace on earth, good will toward men". (Luk_2:14) The curses of the Law were replaced by the Beatitudes". (Mat_5:3-10) The gentle and tender Jesus destroyed nothing but a single senseless tree. (Mat_21:19) He went about doing good. He was "sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that were bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord". (Luk_4:18, Luk_4:19) When men rose up against him, when his life was attempted, before his hour was come, he was content by an exertion of his miraculous power to withdraw himself, to pass through their midst, and go his way. On one occasion he himself pointed the contrast between the two dispensations in the most distinct and remarkable manner. It was when he and his disciples were proceeding on a journey through this very district of Samaria, where Elijah had shown forth the justice of God, that his disciples, James and John, the "Sons of Thunder," as they were called, desired to repeat the Tishbite"s act for the punishment of some Samaritans who would not permit him to enter their village. "Lord," they said, "wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" But they little knew the Master they addressed. Jesus "turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men"s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village". (Luk_9:51-56) "It was," remarks Archbishop Trench, "as if he had said, "Ye are mistaking and confounding the different standing-points of the old and new covenants, taking your stand upon the old that of an avenging righteousness, when you should rejoice to take it upon the new that of a forgiving love ("Notes on the Miracles," 2 Kings 4. p. 36, note). The spirit of the Christian dispensation is seen especially in such commands as the following: "Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"; (Mat_5:39) "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you"; (Mat_5:44) "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another"; (Rom_12:10) "Recompense to no man evil for evil"; (Rom_12:17) "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written; Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good". (Rom_12:19-21)
Vers. 9-18.
Man in three aspects.
the king sent unto him a captain of fifty," etc. In this paragraph we have man in three aspects.
I MAN RUINED THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. The messengers which the king sent to Elijah fifty each time on three different occasions were all, except the last fifty, destroyed by lightning. This awful judgment came upon them, not merely on their own account although, like all sinners, they had forfeited their lives to eternal justice but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race, in all races and times, there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others. In this world the innocent suffer for the guilty; the "fathers eat sour grapes, and the children"s teeth are set on edge.
II MAN EMPLOYED AS THE EXECUTOR OF DIVINE JUSTICE. These hundred men, messengers from the king, were struck down by Elijah at the command of God. There was no personal vengeance in the act.
Elijah was used as the organ of Heaven. God"s plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man. How was Pharaoh punished, and the Canaanites, etc.? By man. Sinful nations are punished, often by worthless kings and ruthless despots.
III MAN STEPPING INTO THE PLACE OF THE DEAD. The King Ahaziah dies; Jehoram steps into his place. "So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead." "One generation cometh, and another passeth away." Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. Thus the world goes on, and the dead are soon forgotten. The greatest man on earth today is but a mere bubble on the great river of human life; he sparkles for a moment, and is lost forever in the abyss. D.T.
Vers. 9-16.
The prophet of fire.
The act of Elijah, in calling down fire from heaven on his enemies, is thus remarked upon by Dean Stanley, with reference to Christ"s allusion to it in the gospel. (Luk_9:51-56) "When the two apostles appealed to the example of Elijah "to call down fire from heaven," he to whom they spoke turned away with indignation from the remembrance of this act, even of the greatest of his prophetic predecessors" ("Jewish Church," vol. 2. p. 258). We cannot endorse this remark. Jesus, indeed, gently rebuked his disciples, telling them they did not know what manner of spirit they were of, and reminding them that the Son of man was not come to destroy men"s lives, but to save them. But he did not mean to imply that the spirit which Elijah showed was, in its own time and place, wrong. It was a pure and holy zeal for God"s honor, and God sanctioned it by sending the fire. Only there was a better and higher spirit-the spirit of love and grace in Christ; and it was by this the disciples of Christ ought to have been actuated. What was congruous with the old dispensation was not necessarily congruous with the higher spirit of the new. Christ may have intended to suggest also that the disciples were mistaken in thinking that their spirit was exactly that of the Old Testament man of God. He was moved solely by regard for God"s honor; in their case personal anger and resentment probably gave an impure tinge to their passion.
I BEDCHAMBER REVENGE. It is pitiable to see this sick king, within a few hours of his death, instead of humbling himself in repentance, stretching out his puny arm to do battle with God in the person of his messenger. If he must die, he is resolved that Elijah shall die also. This resolve is:
1. A sign of character. It shows the thoroughly hardened and irreligious nature of the man. There are no limits to a sinner"s madness in warring against God.
1. An act of infatuation. Knowing what he did of the prophet"s history, he might have understood that his enterprise was hopeless. He may have reasoned that, as the blood of prophets had been spilt before, (1Ki_18:4) so it might be spilt again. But he was now crossing a prophet in the direct discharge of his duty, and was thus, in a sense, giving a direct challenge to God. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth". (Isa_45:9) A knowledge of the perilousness of the task in which he was embarking is shown in the fact that a band of fifty men is sent to arrest one prophet (cf. Joh_18:3) If a band was necessary, it could only be because Elijah had supernatural aid to rely on; and, if he had that aid, no amount of force could overcome him.
2. A trace of evil influence. It is the spirit of Jezebel which breathes in this Heaven-defying resolution. The queen-mother had not forgotten her yet unfulfilled threat, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time". (1Ki_19:2) There were old scores to pay off against Elijah, and this wicked woman was no doubt there to strengthen her son in his resolution to pay them.
II ELIJAH ON THE HILL. The band that was sent to apprehend Elijah found him seated on the top of a hill Observe:
1. The solitary grandeur of his situation. The situation was characteristic. We may say of Elijah what Wordsworth says of Milton, his "soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." He is a strange, solitary figure from first to last stern, rugged, unconquerable.
2. His moral fearlessness. The appearance of Ahaziah"s soldiers inspired him with no terror. He had apparently waited in the neighborhood where he met the messengers, and did not now retreat. Strong in his sense that God was on his side, he did not fear what man could do to him. (Psa_118:6)
3. His invisible protection. The result showed how entirely Elijah was justified in his confidence. "The angel of the Lord," who had sent him on his mission, "encamped around him", (Psa_34:7) and kept him from all evil. Those who are engaged in Divine work can confidently rely on Divine protection. Not till they had "finished their testimony" was the beast allowed to kill the witnesses. (Rev_11:7) The mountain on which Elijah sat was no doubt as "full of horses and chariots of fire" as the hill of Samaria was in after-days for the protection of Elisha. (2Ki_6:17) What could bands of fifties avail against one thus defended?
III THE CAPTAINS AND THEIR FIFTIES.
1. The first captain. Clothed with a little brief authority, this first captain, accompanied by his fifty men, approaches Elijah, and orders him to surrender.
(1) The terms of his summons: "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down." In the same breath in which he acknowledges him to be a servant of Jehovah, he demands his submission to the wicked King of Israel. Le roy le veult the king wills it. Thus poor, paltry, human authority ventures to assert itself against the authority of the King of kings. No uncommon thing, it must be said, in history. In the extravagance of its conceit, too often has royal authority presumed to set itself above the law of heaven, and to dragoon, imprison, and coerce those who chose to obey God rather than man. Nor have tools ever been wanting to carry out these infamous behests.
(2) A lurking fear. Notwithstanding his bravado, the officer was not without his own fear of Elijah. He does not boldly mount the hill to secure his prisoner, but stands at a respectful distance, and summons him to "come down." The wicked often inwardly fear the righteous at the very time when they boast most loudly of having them in their power.
(3) The answer of fire. This insolent summons to Elijah, in his character of "man of God," was a direct challenge to Jehovah to vindicate his own honor, and that of his insulted servant. The insult was wanton and public, and must be as publicly met. Elijah met it by invoking God, if he was truly his servant, to send down fire from heaven to consume this blustering captain and his myrmidons. As before, in the contest with Baal"s prophets, his prayer was granted, and the answer came by fire. (1Ki_18:21-39) "Elijah will let him know that the God of Israel is superior to the King of Israel, and has a greater power to enforce his commands" (Matthew Henry). Thus at length, gospel dispensation though it is, will fire descend from heaven to consume the hosts of the ungodly. (Rev_20:9)
1. The second captain. One example of this kind should have been enough. But when men are inspired by fury and hate of God, above all, when it is not their own lives they are risking, they are not easily deterred. As if this first defeat but added fuel to the king"s anger, the order goes forth for another band to he equipped, and sent to take the prophet. The captain who received the mandate had no choice but to obey, and military pride may have led him to suppress any outward show of misgiving. But it must have been with no small quaking of heart that he set out on this now doubly perilous service. Still Elijah sits on his hill, and, putting as bold a front on matters as he can, the second captain, in the king"s name, repeats the summons to come down. "O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly." Elijah from his height returns the former answer; and once again the thunderbolt descends, and scatters the bodies of this second fifty at the hill"s foot beside the first.
2. The third captain. Not even yet will the king own the folly of resistance. Like Pharaoh in conflict with Moses, each new calamity but seems to harden him the more. A third captain is dispatched with the same peremptory orders to seize the recalcitrant prophet.
(1) But this captain is wiser than his predecessors. He does what few in his position could help doing accepts a lesson from experience. He abandons the insolent tone of previous captains, and, failing on his knees before Elijah, sues for peace. "O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight." He sees the folly of flinging away his life, and the lives of his men, to please a foolish king in a contest as wicked as it was vain.
(2) This prayer robs his mission of its offensiveness, acknowledges God"s supremacy, and shows that Elijah"s life is in no danger. The angel of the Lord accordingly says to Elijah, "Go down with him: be not afraid of him." By this timely humbling of himself, the third captain
(a) saved the lives of himself and his men;
(b) obtained what the former captains could not obtain by their bullying, viz. that Elijah should go with him.
No fire descended from heaven upon him, for God takes no pleasure in the wanton destruction of human life. And not only was his life spared, but he was saved from the king"s anger, by Elijah consenting to accompany him. He was a living example of the truth, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble". (Jam_4:6)
IV THE WORD OF DOOM CONFIRMED. Brought, not as a prisoner, but as a conqueror, to Ahaziah"s bedchamber, Elijah repeated in person the terrible message he had formerly sent by the messengers. "Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." It is the word of doom, and as such Ahaziah cannot but hear it. This is all he has made of his futile attempts to fight against God to hear that doom confirmed by the very prophet whose head he had vowed to bring to the dust. The counsel of the Lord, it alone stands; the imagination of the sinner perishes. It is from Christ"s own lips that those who now fight against him and despise his gospel will hear their final sentence. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of…
2Ki_1:9-16
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty.
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The destruction of the two captains with their companies
Consider--
I. The steps which led up to this miracle.
1. Seeking help where it was not to be found, in direct violation of the law of God. If a member of a family were to break his arm, and instead of applying to the family surgeon who had in the past given full proof of his skill, were to seek the advice of a quack, he would be sinning against himself, and insulting the man who was able and willing to cure him. This was the conduct of Ahaziah towards the God of his nation.
2. A Divine rebuke (2Ki_1:3). God does not leave transgressors to pursue their way without remonstrance.
3. A message to take Elijah prisoner.
II. The miracle itself.
1. The fire, if not miraculous in itself, was miraculous in its manner of executing the will of God. It came from heaven at the call of Elijah.
2. It was in keeping with the recent proof of Elijahs Divine commission given on Mount Carmel (1Ki_18:38).
3. The miracle was arrested, and the prophet was arrested by a force not sent by the king (2Ki_1:13-15).
Lessons.
1. Help must be sought where God has appointed that it shall be found (Joh_14:6; Act_4:12).
2. The responsibility of the individual man.
3. When God has spoken He cannot change His word unless the sinner changes his way.
4. The only strength that can conquer heaven is the strength of supplication. (Outlines of Sermons by a London Minister.)
Man in three aspects
I. Man ruined through the conduct of others. This awful judgment came upon them not merely on their own account, but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others.
II. Man employed as the executor of Divine justice. Gods plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man.
III. Man stepping into the place of the dead. The King Ahaziah dies, Jehoram steps into his place. One generation cometh, and another passeth away. Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. (Homilist.)
On tolerance of error
Now, it is obvious that, terrible as this judgment seems to us, it was not contrary to Gods will. It is easy to say that the captain was only executing the kings orders, and that the fifty soldiers had no responsibility save that of obeying their leader. But we have still more right to say that He, who would have spared Sodom if ten righteous had been found in it, would not have consumed these two bands of fifty men if any God-fearing men had been amongst them. The kings attempt to seize the prophet was an open defiance of God, and, moderate as the wording of the captains summons seems, the tone may easily have shown utter contempt both for God and for Elijah. We may well believe, therefore, that Elijah on this occasion, as when he destroyed the priests of Baal, knew that he was fulfilling Gods purpose of judgment. But now, thank God, all judgment has been committed to Him who died for sinners and prayed for His murderers. The Cross of Christ has completely changed the attitude of Christian people towards the enemies of God. How dare we treat as reprobate those for whom Christ died! While the day of grace lasts there is hope for the very worst. There is little fear, however, of Elijahs example being followed in the present day. Protestants, at any rate, have given up issuing excommunications and hurling anathemas at the heads of notorious offenders. We are all for toleration now, and any attempt to restrain mens liberty of thought and action is hotly resented. Surely the pendulum has swung too far. We need not in our dread of religious intolerance lull into religious indifference, and regard all errors in faith and practice with complacent apathy. Truth must always be intolerant of error. Nine times nine are eighty-one, and you would not tolerate a teacher who said they were eighty. Truth cannot tolerate error without denying itself. Where personal comfort and safety are concerned society is absolutely intolerant. Few would tolerate having a smallpox patient in their house. Is it reasonable to be so intolerant of infection for the body and so careless as to moral infection for the mind and soul! Shall the authorities step in and strip off the very paper from the walls in their zeal for sanitation? and shall we allow men of known impurity of life and those who scoff at prayer to mix freely with our sons and daughters? The zeal of the Crusader who gloried in slaying the infidel is surely more righteous than the indifference of the modern Laodicean, who has not a single truth that he thinks worth fighting for. We want more hatred of evil in these days. The popular novelist delights in confusing the issues, and making sin seem right and beautiful. There is sacred liberty of thought which is the dearest right of Protestants, but it is not to be made a cloak of maliciousness. We have no right to think wrong thoughts. While all the progress in the world is due to freedom of thought, it is the correctness of the thought, not the freedom of it, which has achieved the good. Loose thinking is as bad as loose living. The man who is filled with the Spirit will witness plainly and fearlessly against both. (F. S. Webster, M. A.)
The captains of Ahazian destroyed by fire
1. See, here, the power of God, revealing His wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In all, and each, of these cases, the authority was that of God, the power was that of God. Let no man, therefore, wrest this Scripture to his own destruction, nor look upon it as furnishing any precedent, or encouragement to persecute, in our own day, the enemies of the Lord.
2. Our duty is to confess Christ before men, and neither by word, nor deed, to compromise any, the minutest parts, of His gracious counsels. We must rebuke the gainsayers, recall the erring, confirm the wavering, and instruct the ignorant; but, in doing this, we must not take a single step in our own strength, or wisdom, we must look ever unto Him, who in this, as in every other case, hath left us an example that we should follow His steps; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, knowing that we are thereunto caned, that we should inherit a blessing.
3. Elijahs history furnishes us with fresh motives to prayer and perseverance. If God hath spoken, here, in the accents of terror, He hath spoken, also, in the accents of compassion; if the destruction of two of Ahaziahs captains, with their companies, points out the danger of persecuting the saints of God, and the speedy death of Ahaziah exposes, no less clearly, the wretched presumption of the rebel creature, when he attempts to set at nought Gods counsels; yet, the withholding punishment from the third captain, who fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated that the life of himself and of his followers might be precious in his sight, proves no less clearly that, in His wrath, the Lord remembers mercy! What greater encouragement to well-doing can the faithful servant of God receive, than the protection here vouchsafed to the Tishbite?
4. Assuredly, the records of Elijahs ministry have placed this blessed truth plainly and palpably before us; may they lead us more heartily to obey the will of Him who revealed it! May the lustre which the Gospel pours upon those records, reveal more distinctly the weakness of our own nature, and the glorious hope of redemption, set before us through Christ! May this guide our footsteps in peace along the course of the life that now is! (J. S. M. Anderson, M. A.)
Destructive forces in the hand of God
The Bible does occasionally lift the veil, and shows us how the destructive forces of nature have been the servants of the will of a moral God. It was so when the waters of the Red Sea returned violently on the Egyptian pursuers of Israel. It was so when at the prayer of Elijah the messengers of Ahaziah were struck dead by lightning. It was so when Jonah was fleeing to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord: The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. It was so when there arose a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, that the disciples might learn to trust the power of their sleeping Master. And it was so when St. Paul, bound on his Romeward voyage, was wrecked on the shore of Malta. In all these cases we see the wind and the storm fulfilling His word; because the Bible enables us to see exactly how in each case Gods word or will was fulfilled. But there is much in modem history, perhaps in our own lives and experience, which seems to us to illustrate the matter scarcely less vividly. Our ancestors saw Gods hand in the storm which scattered the great Armada; and a century later the wind which buried the intruding successor of the saintly Ken beneath the chimneys of his own palace at Wells, seemed to pious Churchmen of the day to be not improbably a mark of the Divine displeasure. There are obvious difficulties which our Lord points to in His allusion to the loss of life at the fall of the Tower of Siloam; there are obvious difficulties in pressing such inferences too confidently or too far. But we may see enough, and we may have reason to suspect more that enables us to be certain of this, that nature is in the hand of the Ruler of the moral world, and that we may be sure of a moral purpose, whether we can exactly make it out or not, in the use which He makes of it. (Dean Farrar.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v9 The Punishment of Ahaziah’s Servants and his Death
The Punishment of Ahaziah’s Servants and his Death
v. 9. Then the king sent unto him, Elijah, a captain of fifty with his fifty, some act of violence being intended. And he, the captain, went up to him; and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill, where he lived. And he spake unto him, in a tone and form of harsh command, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. It was not a respectful address, but a haughty, contemptuous, and scoffing insult.
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v. 10. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. This has been transcribed as follows: "If I be a man of God, as thou sayest, but dost not think, then I am not bound to obey the king, but God, nor am I subject to his power, but to God’s, who will make thee know that He judges in the earth. " And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
v. 11. Again, also, he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty, he persisted in his stubborn willfulness. And he answered and said unto him, sharing the king’s contempt for the prophet, as the first captain had, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. His command was even more peremptory than that of the first messenger.
v. 12. And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. In either case the men were guilty of a deliberate mockery of the prophetical office in the person of Elijah, and therefore of the Lord Himself, hence the quick and terrible punishment, similar to those which are occasionally meted out by the Lord in our day, and which the infidels vainly try to explain away.
v. 13. And he, the king, still determined to carry out his will, sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, but in an entirely different spirit, so far as his own person was concerned, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, with all humility, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these fifty, thy servants, be precious in thy sight, namely, by not calling down God’s punishment upon them.
v. 14. Behold, there came fire down from heaven and burned up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties; therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. He acknowledged the righteous punishment of God and begged to be spared.
v. 15. And the Angel of the Lord, the same who had directed him to deliver the message to the king’s ambassadors,
v. 3. said unto Elijah, Go down with him; be not afraid of him, that is, of the king. And he arose and went down with him unto the king.
v. 16. And he, without giving Ahaziah an opportunity to heap maledictions upon him, said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of His Word, this being the standard to which all appeals should be made at all times? Therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
v. 17. So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram, his brother, reigned in his stead, in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who was probably made coregent by his father at the time when the latter joined in the campaign against the Syrians with Ahab, because he had no son.
v. 18. Now, the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? The story of Elijah’s punishment of the blasphemous captains and their bands is referred to in the New Testament, Luk 9:54 ff. As God had a great deal of patience with the godless kings of Israel, so He, in the New Testament, much prefers using His mercy; for it is His purpose to seek and to save lost sinners. Nevertheless, when men persist in rejecting and blaspheming Christ and His salvation, they must expect the well-earned damnation to come upon them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers…
Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers to Elijah
The king sent the leader of the army with fifty men to bring Elijah back to him. AT: "Then the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers to seize Elijah" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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fifty soldiers
"50 soldiers" (See: Numbers)
If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven
The captain had called Elijah a man of God, but the captain and the king did not show Elijah proper respect. Elijah said this so that fire would come down from heaven, and this would prove that Elijah really was a man of God and he deserved their respect. AT: "Since I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven" or "If I am a man of God as you have said, let fire come down from heaven"
from heaven
"from the sky"
translationWords
fire
heaven
consume
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 1:9-10 The arrogant words of the army captain contained…
1:9-10 The arrogant words of the army captain contained a contradiction, which Elijah pointed out: If Elijah was a man of God (i.e., God’s prophet), then his authority was from God and to ignore him was to invite peril (Deut 18:15-19). • Fire often symbolizes the presence of God in the Scriptures (see Exod 3:1-6; 19:18; cp. 1 Kgs 18:38). • Fifty soldiers was a common grouping (1 Kgs 18:4); here it indicates a division within Israel’s military organization.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.