Bible Chapter Summary
2 Kings 1 Summary
Ahaziah's Disease and Elijah's Judgment
King Ahaziah of Israel falls through a lattice and becomes sick, then sends messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub whether he will recover. Elijah the prophet confronts the messengers with the word of the LORD, declaring that Ahaziah shall surely die because he sought counsel from a pagan god instead of Israel's God. When Ahaziah sends military captains to arrest Elijah, fire from heaven consumes the first two captains and their companies, but the third captain appeals for mercy and is spared. Elijah then goes to the king and confirms his death, which comes to pass according to the LORD's word.
Key themes
Key verses
2 Kings 1:3
“But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?”
2 Kings 1:4
“Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.”
2 Kings 1:10
“And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.”
2 Kings 1:17
“So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.”
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