2 Reyes 1

Elijah and King Ahaziah

¹After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. ²Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured. So he sent messengers, telling them, “Go and consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will get over this injury.”^a

³But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Get up and go to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria. Say to them, ‘Are you going to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, because there is no God in Israel? ⁴Now therefore the LORD says this: You will not come down from the bed you have gone up to; you will certainly die.’” So Elijah went. ⁵When the messengers came back to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?” ⁶They told him, “A man came up to meet us. He said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, The LORD says this: Are you sending men to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, because there is no God in Israel? For that reason you will not come down from the bed you have gone up to; you will certainly die.’” ⁷He asked them, “What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these things?” ⁸They answered him, “He was a hairy man, with a leather belt tied around his waist.” And the king said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”^{b 9}Then the king sent a commander of fifty with his fifty men to Elijah. The commander went up to him, and there he was, sitting on top of the hill. He called to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’” ¹⁰Elijah answered the commander of the fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and devour you and your fifty men!” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men. ¹¹The king sent to him another commander of fifty with his fifty men. This one spoke up and said to him, “Man of God, the king says this: Come down at once!”^{c 12}Elijah answered them, “If I am the man of God, let fire come down from heaven and devour you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men. ¹³Then the king sent a third commander of fifty with his fifty men. This third commander went up, fell on his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him: “Man of God, please let my life, and the lives of these fifty servants of yours, be precious to you. ¹⁴Fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two commanders of fifty and their fifty men. But now let my life be precious to you.”

Ahaziah dies

¹⁵The angel of the LORD told Elijah, “Go down with him, and have no fear of him.” So Elijah rose and went down with him to the king. ¹⁶Elijah said to the king, “The LORD says this: You sent messengers to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. Did you do that because there is no God in Israel whose word you could seek? Because you did this, you will not come down from the bed you have gone up to; you will certainly die.” ¹⁷So Ahaziah died, in keeping with the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. Because Ahaziah had no son, Jehoram became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.^{d 18}The rest of the acts of Ahaziah, what he did, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.^e