2 Kings

¹After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel.

²Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured. He sent messengers with instructions: 'Go ask Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.'

³But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, 'Go up and intercept the messengers of the king of Samaria. Ask them: Is there no God in Israel that you are going to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?'

⁴Therefore this is what the LORD says: You will not leave the bed you are lying on — you will certainly die. And Elijah left.

⁵When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, 'Why have you come back?'

⁶They replied, 'A man came to meet us and said, Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: This is what the LORD says — Is there no God in Israel that you are sending to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on — you will certainly die.'

⁷The king asked them, 'What did the man look like who came to meet you and told you this?'

⁸They answered, 'He was a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.' The king said, 'That was Elijah the Tishbite.'

⁹The king sent a military captain with fifty soldiers to Elijah. The captain climbed up to Elijah, who was sitting on top of a hill, and said, 'Man of God, the king commands you to come down.'

¹⁰Elijah answered the captain, 'If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.' Then fire fell from heaven and destroyed him and his soldiers.

¹¹The king sent another captain with fifty men to Elijah. That captain said to him, 'Man of God, the king orders you to come down immediately.'

¹²Elijah replied, 'If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.' Again fire from God came down from heaven and destroyed the captain and his soldiers.

¹³The king sent a third captain with fifty men. This third captain went up, knelt before Elijah, and pleaded with him: 'Man of God, please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men who serve you.'

¹⁴Fire has already come down from heaven and destroyed both of the previous captains and their men. But now, please spare my life.

¹⁵The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, 'Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.' So Elijah got up and went down with him to see the king.

¹⁶Elijah told the king, 'This is what the LORD says: Because you sent messengers to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron — as if there were no God in Israel to consult — you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die.'

¹⁷So Ahaziah died, just as the LORD had declared through Elijah. Since Ahaziah had no son, Jehoram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸The rest of the events of Ahaziah's reign are recorded in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.