Discovery Box2 Kings 1:10-11 
Context1:10 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.
1:11 The king 3 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
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 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tc 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.
5 sn 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.
