1 After King Ahab died, the country of Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 One day, Ahaziah, the new king of Israel, fell through the wooden slats/boards around the edge of the flat roof of his palace in Samaria. He was badly injured, so he summoned some messengers and told them, “Go to Ekron city in Philistia, and ask their god Baalzebub whether I will ◄recover/become well►.”

3 But an angel from Yahweh said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe town, “The king of Samaria is sending some messengers to Ekron. Go and meet them and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to Ekron to ask Baalzebub, the god of those people, whether you will recover? 4 Yahweh says that you should tell King Ahaziah that he will not recover from his being injured; he will surely die.’ ”

5  So Elijah went to meet the messengers and told that to them, and they returned to the king instead of going to Ekron. The king asked them, “Why did you return so soon?”

6 They replied, “A man came to meet us, and said to us, ‘Return to the king who sent you and tell him that Yahweh says, “◄Is it because there no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to Ekron to consult Baalzebub, their god?/You seem to think there is no God in Israel, with the result that you are sending messengers to Ekron to ask Baalzebub, their god, whether you will recover.► [RHQ] Go tell the king that he will not recover from being injured; instead, he will surely die.” ’ ”

7 The king said to them, “The man who came to meet you and told that to you, what did he look like?”

8 They replied, “He was a hairy man and he had a wide leather belt around his waist.” The king exclaimed, “That was Elijah!”

9 Then the king sent an officer with 50 soldiers to seize Elijah. They found Elijah sitting on the top of a hill. The officer called out to him, “Prophet, the king commands that you come down here!”

10 But Elijah replied, “I am a prophet; so, I command that fire come down from the sky and burn up you and your 50 soldiers!” Immediately, fire came down from the sky and completely burned up the officer and his 50 soldiers.

11  When the king found out about that, he sent another officer with 50 more soldiers. They went to where Elijah was, and the officer called out to him, “Prophet, the king commands that you come down immediately!”

12 But Elijah replied, “I am a prophet; to prove that, I command that fire come down from the sky and kill you and your soldiers!” Then a fire from God came down from the sky and killed the officer and his soldiers.

13  When the king heard about that he sent another officer with 50 more soldiers. They went to where Elijah was, and the officer prostrated himself in front of Elijah, and said to him, “Prophet, I plead with you, be kind to me and my 50 soldiers, and ◄do not kill us/allow us to remain alive►! 14  We know that two times fire came down from the sky and killed officers and the 50 soldiers who were with them. So now, please be kind to me!”

15 Then the angel from Yahweh said to Elijah, “Go down and go with him. Do not be afraid of him.” So Elijah went with them to the king.

16  When Elijah arrived, he said to the king, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘You sent messengers to go to Ekron to ask Baalzebub, their god, whether you would recover. You acted as though [RHQ] there is no God in Israel to consult. So you will not recover from being injured; instead, you are going to die!’ ” 17 So Ahaziah died, which is what Yahweh told Elijah would happen. Ahaziah’s younger brother Joram became the new king, when Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, had been ruling Judah for almost two years. Ahaziah’s brother became the king because Ahaziah had no son to become the king.

18  If you want to know about all the other things that Ahaziah did, they are [RHQ] written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Israel’.