⁹ So King Ahaziah sent a captain of 50 with his 50 men^(A) to Elijah. When the captain went up to him, he was sitting on top of the hill. He announced, “Man of God,^(B) the king declares, ‘Come down!’”

¹⁰ Elijah responded to the captain of the 50, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 men.^(C)

¹¹ So the king sent another captain of 50 with his 50 men to Elijah. He took in the situation^[a] and announced, “Man of God, this is what the king says: ‘Come down immediately!’”

¹² Elijah responded, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men.” So a divine fire^[b] came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 men.

¹³ Then the king sent a third captain of 50 with his 50 men. The third captain of 50 went up and fell on his knees in front of Elijah and begged him, “Man of God,^(D) please let my life and the lives of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight.^{(E) 14} Already fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of 50 with their fifties, but this time let my life be precious in your sight.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord^(F) said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.”^(G) So he got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶ Then Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel for you to inquire of His will?—you will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.’”

¹³ He also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people.