2 Kings 1:10

Contextual Overview

⁹So King Ahaziah sent a captain with his fifty men to Elijah. When the captain went up to him, he was sitting on top of the hill. He announced, “Man of God, the king declares, ‘Come down!’” ⁹ Then [the king] sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. He went up to him: and, behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He spoke to him, man of God, the king has said, Come down. 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. ⁹ Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.'" ⁹ Then he sent a captain with his fifty men to Elijah. The captain went to Elijah, who was sitting on top of the hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!'" ⁹ The king sent a captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. The captain went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. He told him, "Prophet, the king says, ‘Come down!'" ⁹Then the king sent to Elijah a captain of fifty with his fifty [fighting men to seize the prophet]. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of a hill. And the captain said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'" ⁹ Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him, "You man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'" ⁹ Therefore the King sent vnto him a captaine ouer fiftie with his fiftie men, who went vp vnto him: for beholde, he sate on the toppe of a mountaine, and he saide vnto him, O man of God, the King hath commanded that thou come downe. ⁹Then the king sent to him a commander of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him, "O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If I be a man: 2 Kings 2:23, 2 Kings 2:24, Numbers 16:28-30, 1 Kings 18:36-38, 1 Kings 22:28, 2 Chronicles 36:16, Psalms 105:15, Matthew 21:41, Matthew 23:34-37, Acts 5:3-10

let fire: Or, rather, as the original literally imports, and the LXX render, ךבפבגחףופבי נץס, fire shall come down; Elijah's words being simply declarative, and not imprecatory. Numbers 11:1, Numbers 16:35, Job 1:16, Psalms 106:18, Luke 9:54, Hebrews 12:29, Revelation 11:5

consumed: Daniel 3:22, Daniel 3:25, Daniel 6:24, Acts 12:19

Reciprocal: Leviticus 10:2 - fire 1 Kings 19:12 - a fire 2 Kings 1:12 - General 2 Kings 1:14 - Behold 2 Kings 8:7 - The man of God Job 38:35 - Canst Psalms 29:7 - flames Jeremiah 5:14 - I will make Acts 5:5 - hearing Revelation 13:13 - he maketh Revelation 20:9 - and fire

Cross-References

Genesis 1:4
God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God caused there to be a separation between the light and between the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God sawe the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkenes.

Genesis 1:4
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God looked at the light and saw that it was good. He separated light from darkness

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, if I be a man of God,.... As I am, and thou shalt know it by the following token, though thou callest me so jeeringly:

then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty; this he said not in a passion, and from a private spirit of revenge, but for the vindication of the honour and glory of God, and under the impulse of his spirit, who was abused through the insult on him as his prophet:

and there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty; a flash of lightning, which destroyed them at once; the Lord hearkening to the voice of his prophet, in vindication of him in his office, and of his own glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The charge of cruelty made against Elijah makes it needful to consider the question: What was Elijah’s motive? And the answer is: Sharply to make a signal example, to vindicate God’s honor in a striking way. Ahaziah had, as it were, challenged Yahweh to a trial of strength by sending a band of fifty to arrest one man. Elijah was not Jesus Christ, able to reconcile mercy with truth, the vindication of God’s honor with the utmost tenderness for erring men, and awe them merely by His presence (compare John 18:6). In Elijah the spirit of the Law was embodied in its full severity. His zeal was fierce; he was not shocked by blood; he had no softness and no relenting. He did not permanently profit by the warning at Horeb (1 Kings 19:12 note). He continued the uncompromising avenger of sin, the wielder of the terrors of the Lord, such exactly as he had shown himself at Carmel. He is, consequently, no pattern for Christian men Luke 9:55; but his character is the perfection of the purely legal type. No true Christian after Pentecost would have done what Elijah did. But what he did, when he did it, was not sinful. It was but executing strict, stern justice. Elijah asked that fire should fall - God made it fall; and, by so doing, both vindicated His own honor, and justified the prayer of His prophet.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 1:10. And there came down fire — Some have blamed the prophet for destroying these men, by bringing down fire from heaven upon them. But they do not consider that it was no more possible for Elijah to bring down fire from heaven, than for them to do it. God alone could send the fire; and as he is just and good, he would not have destroyed these men had there not been a sufficient cause to justify the act. It was not to please Elijah, or to gratify any vindictive humour in him, that God thus acted; but to show his own power and justice. No entreaty of Elijah could have induced God to have performed an act that was wrong in itself. Elijah, personally, had no concern in the business. God led him simply to announce on these occasions what he himself had determined to do. If I be a man of God, i.e., as surely as I am a man of God, fire SHALL come down from heaven, and SHALL consume thee and thy fifty. This is the literal meaning of the original; and by it we see that Elijah's words were only declarative, and not imprecatory.