1:9 The king 1 sent a captain and his fifty soldiers 2 to retrieve Elijah. 3 The captain 4 went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill. 5 He told him, “Prophet, 6 the king says, ‘Come down!’” 1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, 7 “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down 8 from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.
5:1 Now Naaman, the commander of the king of Syria’s army, was esteemed and respected by his master, 12 for through him the Lord had given Syria military victories. But this great warrior had a skin disease. 13
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “officer of fifty and his fifty.”
3 tn Heb “to him.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the captain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 sn The prophet Elijah’s position on the top of the hill symbolizes his superiority to the king and his messengers.
6 tn Heb “man of God” (also in vv. 10, 11, 12, 13).
7 tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”
8 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.
13 tn Heb “he said to him.”
14 tn Heb “you have turned trembling to us with all this trembling.” The exaggerated language is probably idiomatic. The point seems to be that she has taken great pains or gone out of her way to be kind to them. Her concern was a sign of her respect for the prophetic office.
15 tn Heb “Among my people I am living.” This answer suggests that she has security within the context of her family.
19 tn Heb “was a great man before his master and lifted up with respect to the face.”
20 tn For a discussion of מְצֹרָע (mÿtsora’), traditionally translated “leprous,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 63. Naaman probably had a skin disorder of some type, not leprosy/Hansen’s disease.