Chapter 1
Ahaziah Consults Baal-zebub. 1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 Now Ahaziah had fallen down through the lattice of his upper chamber in Samaria and he was injured, so he sent messengers, saying, “Go to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to inquire as to whether I will recover from this illness or not.”[a]
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the king of Samaria’s messengers and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no god in Israel that you are going to make inquiry of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Therefore, thus says the Lord: You shall not rise from the bed on which you lie; you will surely die.” Then Elijah departed.
5 The messengers then returned to him. He said to them, “Why have you come back?” 6 They answered him, “A man came up to meet us and he said, ‘Return to the king who sent you and say: Thus says the Lord: Is it because there is no god in Israel that you have sent to make inquiry of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? You shall not rise from the bed on which you lie; you will surely die.’ ”
7 The king asked them, “What sort of man was this who came up to meet you and who said these words to you?” 8 They replied, “He was wearing a garment made from hair[b] and a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It was Elijah the Tishbite!”
9 The king then sent a captain of fifty along with his fifty men. He went up to him, and he found him sitting on a hilltop. He said to him, “O man of God, the king orders you, ‘Come down!’ ” 10 Elijah answered the captain of the fifty men, saying, “If I am truly a man of God, then let fire come down from the heavens and consume you and your fifty men.” Fire then came down from the heavens and it consumed him and his fifty men.
11 He sent another captain of fifty along with his fifty men. He said to him, “O man of God, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’ ” 12 Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the heavens and consume you and your fifty men.” Then God’s fire came down from the heavens and consumed him and his fifty men.
13 And so a third time he sent a captain of fifty along with his fifty men. The third captain of the fifty came and fell on his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him saying, “O man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants, be considered to be precious in your sight. 14 Behold, fire has come down from the heavens, and it has consumed the previous two captains of the fifty along with their fifty men. Let my life be precious in your sight.”
15 The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.” So he went down with him to the king. 16 He said to the king, “Thus says the Lord: Is it because there is no God in Israel of whom you can inquire that you have sent messengers to make inquiry of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Because of this, you shall not rise from the bed on which you lie. You will surely die!”
17 He died, fulfilling the word of the Lord that Elijah had proclaimed. Because he had no son, Joram reigned in his stead during the second year of the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. 18 As for the rest of the deeds of Ahaziah, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 1:2 Baal-zebub, “Lord of the flies,” a distorted version of the name of the divinity Baal-zebul (Lord Prince; see Mt 10:25; 12:24).
- 2 Kings 1:8 Garment made from hair: this distinctive attire set Elijah apart as one who was committed to delivering God’s hard messages to the king and other prophets, despite the rejection and loneliness that often resulted. In the New Testament, John the Baptist strikes a similar appearance and fate (Mt 3:4; Mk 6:17).