2 Kings 1

Thomson^{(i) 1} After the death of Achab, Moab broke covenant with Israel. ² and Ochozias fell through the lattice in his upper chamber at Samaria, and was sick, whereupon he sent messengers, saying to them, Go and inquire of Baal the fly-god of Akkaron, whether I shall recover from this sickness of mine. ³ And when they set out to inquire of him, the angel of the Lord called Elias the Thesbite, and said, Arise and go, meet the messengers of Ochozias king of Samaria, and say to them, Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that you are going to inquire of Baal the fly-god of Akkaron? ⁴ Now is not this the case, saith the Lord, From the bed to which thou art gone up thou shalt not come down, for thou shalt assuredly die? ⁵ So Elias went and spoke to them, and the messengers returned to the king. ⁶ Thereupon he said to them, Why are you returned? To which they replied, There came up a man to meet us, and he said to us, Go, return to the king who sent you and say to him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that thou goest to inquire of Baal, the fly-god of Akkaron? Now is not this the case; From the bed to which thou hast gone up thou shalt not come down, for thou shalt assuredly die? ⁷ Now when they who returned told the king what Elias had said, he said to them, What sort of a man was he who came up to meet you, and spoke these words to you? ⁸ And they said to him, He was a hairy man, girt about the loins with a leathern girdle. Upon which he said, This is Elias the Thesbite. ⁹ Then he sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty, who went up to him. Now behold Elias was sitting on the top of the mount. And when the captain spoke to him and said, Man of God, the king hath sent for thee, come down. ¹⁰ Elias, in reply, said to the captain, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. So there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. ¹¹ But the king persisted, and sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And the captain spoke to him and said, Man of God, thus saith the king, Come down quickly. ¹² Whereupon Elias in reply, said to him, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. Accordingly there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. ¹³ Still the king persisted, and sent another captain and his fifty. But when the third captain came he fell upon his knees before Elias, and with entreaties addressed him, saying, man of God, let my life and the lives of thy servants, these fifty, be precious in thy sight. ¹⁴ Behold, fire hath come down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty; but now let my life, I beseech thee, be precious in thy sight. ¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, and said, Go down with him; be not afraid of them. So Elias arose and went down with him to the king. ¹⁶ And Elias spoke to him and said, Thus saith the Lord, Why didst thou send messengers to inquire of Baal the fly-god of Akkaron? Is not this the case? From the bed to which thou hast gone up thou shalt not come down: for thou shalt assuredly die? ¹⁷ So he died according to the word of the Lord, which Elias spake. ¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Ochozias which he did, behold are they not written in the book of the journal of the kings of Israel? And Joram son of Achab reigned over Israel in Samaria, twelve years, commencing in the eighteenth year of Josaphat king of Juda. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not in the manner his brothers, nor as his mother had done. He indeed removed the pillars of Baal which his father had erected, and broke them to pieces. Nevertheless he adhered to the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin, and did not depart from them. Therefore the Lord was provoked to wrath against the house of Achab.