2 Kings 1:10-11

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.

1:11 The king ³  sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, ⁴  “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” ⁵ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

[1:10]  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.

[1:11]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:11]  ⁴ tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.

[1:11]  ⁵ sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.