2 Kings 1:10

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.

2 Kings 1:12

1:12 Elijah replied to them, 3  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire from God 4  came down from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

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

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.

3 tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta have the singular “to him.”

4 tn Or “intense fire.” The divine name may be used idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the fire. Whether one translates אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) here as a proper name or idiomatically, this addition to the narrative (the name is omitted in the first panel, v. 10b) emphasizes the severity of the judgment and is appropriate given the more intense command delivered by the king to the prophet in this panel.