2 Kings 1:10

1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, ¹  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down ²  from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

2 Kings 1:12

1:12 Elijah replied to them, ³  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God ⁴  came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

2 Kings 9:15

9:15 But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians ⁵  when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. ⁶  Jehu told his supporters, ⁷  “If you really want me to be king, ⁸  then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”

¹ tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

² tn Wordplay contributes to the irony here. The king tells Elijah to “come down” (Hebrew יָרַד, yarad), but Elijah calls fire down (יָרַד) on the arrogant king’s officer.

³ tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “to him.”

⁴ tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.

⁵ tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”

⁶ sn See 2 Kgs 8:28-29a.

⁷ tn The words “his supporters” are added for clarification.

⁸ tn Heb “If this is your desire.” נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers here to the seat of the emotions and will. For other examples of this use of the word, see BDB 660-61 s.v.