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 down² from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

1:11 The king³ 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

2 Kings 25:8

Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem

25:8 On the seventh⁶ day of the fifth month,⁷ in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard⁸ who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.⁹

2 Kings 25:11

25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.¹⁰

¹tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

²tn 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.

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

⁴tc 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.

⁵sn 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.

⁶tn The parallel account in Jer 52:12 has “tenth.”

⁷sn The seventh day of the month would have been August 14, 586 b.c. in modern reckoning.

⁸tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2, and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

⁹map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰tc The MT has “the multitude.” But הֶהָמוֹן (hehamon) should probably be emended to הֶאָמוֹן (he’amon).