2 Kings
Chapter 1
Ahaziah and Elijah
After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel.
In Samaria, King Ahaziah fell through the window from the second floor of his house and was severely injured. So he sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron: “Ask him whether I shall survive this accident.”
Then an angel of the Lord said to Elijah of the town of Tishbe: “Arise and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria. You will say to them: Why have you come to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because there is no God in Israel?
Now the Lord himself gives you this answer: ‘You shall not rise again from the bed where you lay down, but shall die there.’” So Elijah went.
Then the messengers returned to Ahaziah, who asked: “How have you returned?”
They answered, “A man met us on the way, and he said to us: ‘Return to the king who sent you and say to him in the name of the Lord: Why do you send men to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Is there no God in Israel? Because of this, you shall not rise again from the bed where you lay down but shall die there.’”
The king asked them: “What was the appearance of the man who met you on the way and told you this?”
They answered him: “The man wore a mantle of fur with a leather belt around his waist.” The king said: “He is Elijah from the town of Tishbe.”
Ahaziah sent a captain with fifty men to get him. Elijah was sitting at the top of the mountain. The captain said to him: “Man of God, the king commands you to come down.”
Elijah replied to the captain: “If I am a man of God, then may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your men.” Fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men.
The king then sent another captain with fifty men, who went up and said: “Man of God, the king says you must come down immediately.”
Elijah answered, “If I am a man of God, then may fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your men.” Fire came down from heaven and burned them all.
The king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third one went up, and, as he came, he fell on his knees before Elijah and said to him: “Man of God, I beg you to pardon me as well as my fifty men; we are all your servants.
I have heard that fire came down from heaven twice and devoured the two captains with their fifty men. So now, do spare my life.”
Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah: “Go down with him and do not be afraid.”
So he stood up and went down with them to the king. And Elijah said to the king: “Listen to this word of the Lord: ‘Because you sent your messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, you shall not rise again from the bed on which you lie but shall die there.’”
Ahaziah died according to what the Lord had said through the mouth of Elijah, and since he had no sons, his brother Jehoram reigned in his place in the second year of the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
Everything referring to Ahaziah and his deeds is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
Commentaries
Ahaziah and Elijah.
Ahaziah takes over Ahab’s throne in Israel and rules for two years (1 Kgs 22:52). After an accident (2), he sends messengers to ask Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, about his future. Elijah appears and blocks the messengers’ path, demanding respect for Israel’s one true God. He tells them to return to the king and inform him that his fate is sealed: he will die. The Deuteronomist narrator aims to demonstrate that no God is more powerful than the God of Israel, while also emphasizing that divine presence and action are mediated through figures like Elijah.