2 Kings 1:11

2Ki 1:11 Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.

Ver. 11. And he answered, and said.] This fellow was more impudent and obstinate than the former; he is therefore worthily made an example, seeing he would not take example.

Come down quickly.] Or I will bring thee down. Satis hoc fuit pro imperio.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 1:11. Thus hath the king said, Come down quickly — This man was more insolent than the former, charging the prophet to obey without delay, and not make him stay, nor think to dally with him: in which words, he doubtless spoke the sense of the whole company. Whereas the fate of those that went before them, might, and ought to have instructed them that the thing they were attempting to do was displeasing to God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:11-13 Report of what happened to the previous contingent had apparently reached the king.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He spake this in mockery, and therefore provoked God’s wrath so much the more.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(11) Again also he sent.—Although he had heard what had befallen his former envoys.

He answered.—LXX., “went up” (way-ya’al for way-ya’an), as in 2Ki_1:9; 2Ki_1:13.

And said.—Heb., spake. Yet some MSS., and Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, as Authorised Version.

Thus hath the king said.—Or, commanded (’âmar).

Come down quickly.—“Impudentior fuit hic . . . priore; tum quia audito ejus supplicio non resipuit, tum quia auxit impudentiam addendo ‘Festina’” (a Lapide). (But see Note on 2Ki_1:12.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. Again also [R.V. And again] he sent] Ahaziah has no regard for the lives that have been sacrificed. Josephus pictures him as ‘exceedingly angry when the destruction of these fifty was made known to him’ (Ant. IX. 2. 1). Probably also his fierceness was aggravated by his hopeless sickness.

And he answered] The verbs which signify ‘to answer’ are used both in Hebrew and in Greek for remarks made where, as here, no question has been asked.

Come down quickly] The second captain goes in the spirit of the king and adds to the message of the first the demand of speedy obedience. We may therefore consider that his punishment was more deserved than that of the former. But the narrative makes it quite clear that both by the king and his people Jehovah was forgotten, and that some signal mark of His anger was called for to check the wandering after other gods, which had grown up out of Jeroboam’s sin.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty,.... The king, not being at all terrified with the awful judgment upon the former, sends another:

and he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, come down quickly; he flouts the prophet in the same manner as the former, and in the king's name commands him to come down, and that immediately; which the king added to his orders, or he himself, signifying he would not be trifled with, if he did not come down directly, he would force him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Another, not knowing what was become of the first, or why he did not return; as Ochozias was eager to have the prophet in his power. (Menochius) --- If he were acquainted with his fate, (Haydock) this second captain was guilty of greater insolence. But there are such generally to be found at courts; men who are ready to execute the king’s orders, without considering whether they be contrary to God’s law or not.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Wherein he discovers more petulancy and impudence than the former, and shows how little he was moved or affrighted by the former example.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Come down quickly — The manner of this second captain towards the prophet is even more insolent than that of the other.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Again also; rather, and again (see the Revised Version). He answered and said; rather, he spoke and said (ejlahse kai eite, LXX). Come down quickly. The king has grown impatient. It is conceivable that the death of the first captain with his band of fifty had been kept from him, and that he was only aware of an unaccountable delay. He therefore changes his order from "Come down" to Come down quickly."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And said - He discovers more petulancy than the former; and shews, how little he was moved by the former example.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The same fate befell a second captain, whom the king sent after the death of the first. He was more insolent than the first, "both because he was not brought to his senses by hearing of his punishment, and because he increased his impudence by adding make haste (מהרה)." - C. a Lap. For וידבּר ויּען the lxx (Cod. Alex.) have καὶ ἀνέβη καὶ ἐλάλησε, so that they read ויּעל. The correctness of this reading, according to which ויּען would be an error of the pen, is favoured not only by ויּעל in Kg2 1:9 and Kg2 1:13, but also by וידבּר which follows; for, as a general rule, ויּען would be followed by ויּאמר. The repetition of this judicial miracle was meant to show in the most striking manner not only the authority which rightfully belonged to the prophet, but also the help and protection which the Lord gave to His servants. At the same time, the question as to the "morality of the miracle," about which some have had grave doubts, is not set at rest by the remark of Thenius, that "the soldiers who were sent come into consideration here purely as instruments of a will acting in opposition to Jehovah." The third captain also carried out he ungodly command of the king, and he was not slain (Kg2 1:13.). The first two must therefore have been guilty of some crime, which they and their people had to expiate with their death. This crime did not consist merely in their addressing him as "man of God," for the third addressed Elijah in the same way (Kg2 1:13), but in their saying "Man of God, come down." This summons to the prophet, to allow himself to be led as a prisoner before the king, involved a contempt not only of the prophetic office in the person of Elijah, but also of the Lord, who had accredited him by miracles as His servant. The two captains who were first sent not only did what they were bound to do as servants of the king, but participated in the ungodly disposition of their lord (συμβαίνοντες τῷ σκοπῷ τοῦ πεπομφότος - Theodoret); they attacked the Lord with reckless daring in the person of the prophet, and the second captain, with his "Come down quickly," did it even more strongly than the first. This sin was punished, and that not by the prophet, but by the Lord Himself, who fulfilled the word of His servant.

(Note: Οἱ τοῦ προφήτου κατηγοροῦντες κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ προφήτου κινοῦσι τὰς γλώττας, as Theodoret very aptly observes.)

What Elijah here did was an act of holy zeal for the honour of the Lord, in the spirit of the old covenant, under which God destroyed the insolent despisers of His name with fire and sword, to manifest the energy of His holy majesty by the side of the dead idols of the heathen. But this act cannot be transferred to the times of the new covenant, as is clearly shown in Luk 9:54-55, where Christ does not blame Elijah for what he did, but admonishes His disciples, who overlooked the difference between the economy of the law and that of the gospel, and in their carnal zeal wanted to imitate what Elijah had done in divine zeal for the honour of the Lord, which had been injured in his own person.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

fifty soldiers

"50 soldiers" (See: Numbers)

If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven

The captain had called Elijah a man of God, but the captain and the king did not show Elijah proper respect. Elijah said this so that fire would come down from heaven, and this would prove that Elijah really was a man of God and he deserved their respect. See how you translated this phrase in 2 Kings 1:10. AT: "Since I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven" or "If I am a man of God as you have said, let fire come down from heaven"

fire of God

This means that the fire came from God. AT: "fire from God" (See: Possession)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.