¹¹ So the king sent another captain with his fifty men to Elijah. He took in the situation^[a] and announced, “Man of God, this is what the king says: ‘Come down immediately!’”

¹² Elijah responded, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” So a divine fire^[b] came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

¹³ Then the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. The third captain went up and fell on his knees in front of Elijah and begged him, “Man of God,^(A) please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious to you.^{(B) 14} Already fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains with their companies, but this time let my life be precious to you.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord^(C) said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.”^(D) So he got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶ Then Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel for you to inquire of his will?—you will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.’”

¹⁷ Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Since he had no son, Joram^[c](E) became king in his place. This happened in the second year of Judah’s King Jehoram^(F) son of Jehoshaphat.^{[d] 18} The rest of the events of Ahaziah’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.^[e](G)

¹² As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” ^(A)

Elisha Succeeds Elijah

When he could see him no longer, he took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two,^(B)

The Divisions of the Levites

23 When David was old and full of days,^(A) he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.^(B)

The Limitations of Wisdom

¹² I, the Teacher,^(A) have been^[a] king over Israel in Jerusalem.