2 Kings 1

After King Ahab died, the Moabites rebelled against Israel.

One day, Ahaziah, the new king of Israel, was in his room on an upper floor of his palace in Samaria. The window of that room had wooden slats, and he fell through them {down to the floor below} and hurt himself badly. So he sent for some messengers and commanded them, “Go and ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether or not I will recover from this injury.” \*

But an angel representing God told Elijah the Tishbite, “King Ahaziah has sent some messengers to Ekron to ask Baal Zebub whether he is going to recover. Go and meet those messengers and tell them to tell Ahaziah that he should have consulted God right here in Israel.

God says that you should tell King Ahaziah that because he consulted Baal Zebub instead, he will never {recover from this injury. He will never} get out of bed again. Instead, he is certainly going to die.” So Elijah went to meet the messengers. \*

{After Elijah told them that,} the messengers returned to the king {instead of going to Ekron}. The king asked them, “Why have you come back so quickly?”

They replied, “A man came to meet us and told us to go back to the king who sent us and tell him that God says he should have consulted God right here in Israel. He should not have sent messengers to ask Baal Zebub whether he was going to recover! The man told us to tell you that because you did that, you will never {recover from this injury and} get out of bed again. Instead, you are certainly going to die.” \*

The king asked them, “What did the man look like who met you and told you that?”

They replied, “He was wearing a hairy cloak, and he had a wide leather belt around his waist.” The king said, “Then that was Elijah the Tishbite!” \*

Then the king sent an officer with his fifty soldiers to seize Elijah. They {went to look for him and} found him sitting on the top of a hill. The officer shouted up to him, “You prophet, the king commands you to come down here {so that we can bring you to him}!”

Elijah replied to the officer, “I am a prophet, as you say. So I command fire to come down from the sky and burn you up along with your fifty soldiers!” Immediately fire came down from the sky and burned up the officer and his fifty soldiers. \*

{When the king found out about that,} he sent another officer with fifty more soldiers to seize Elijah. {They went to where Elijah was, and} the officer called out to him, “You prophet, the king commands you to come down immediately!”

Elijah replied to the officer, “I am a prophet, as you say. So I command fire to come down from the sky and burn you up along with your fifty soldiers!” Then God sent fire down from the sky, and it burned up that officer and his fifty soldiers. \*

{When the king found out about that,} he sent yet another officer with fifty more soldiers. {They went to where Elijah was, and} the officer went up to the top of the hill {alone}. He bowed down {respectfully} in front of Elijah. Then he begged him to be merciful. He said, “You prophet, please do not kill me and my fifty soldiers!

We know that fire came down from the sky and killed the first two officers and their soldiers. But please do not kill me {and my soldiers}!” \*

Then the angel representing God told Elijah, “Go with this man. Do not be afraid of the king.” So Elijah got up and went with the captain {and his soldiers} to the king.

{When} Elijah {arrived, he} told the king, “God says that you should not have sent messengers to go to Ekron to ask Baal Zebub, their god, whether you would recover. You acted as though there was no God in Israel to consult. So you will not recover from this injury. Instead, you will certainly die!” \*

So Ahaziah died, just as God told Elijah to say would happen. Ahaziah had no son to succeed him as king. So Jehoram{, another son of Ahab,} became the next king. This happened when Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat had been ruling Judah for almost two years.

The book in which the kings of Israel recorded what happened during their reigns describes further things that Ahaziah did. \*