Ochozias sendeth to consult Beelzebub: Elias foretelleth his death: and
causeth fire to come down from heaven, upon two captains and their
companies.
1:1. And Moab rebelled against Israel, after the death of Achab.
1:2. And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper chamber, which
he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, saying to them:
Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, whether I shall recover of
this my illness.
1:3. And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, the Thesbite, saying:
Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say
to them: Is there not a God in Israel, that ye go to consult Beelzebub,
the god of Accaron?
1:4. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord: From the bed, on which thou art
gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die. And Elias
went away.
1:5. And the messengers turned back to Ochozias. And he said to them:
Why are you come back?
1:6. But they answered him: A man met us, and said to us: Go, and return
to the king, that sent you, and you shall say to him: Thus saith the
Lord: Is it because there was no God in Israel, that thou sendest to
Beelzebub, the god of Accaron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from
the bed, on which thou art gone up, but thou shalt surely die.
1:7. And he said to them: What manner of man was he who met you, and
spoke these words?
1:8. But they said: A hairy man, with a girdle of leather about his
loins. And he said: It is Elias, the Thesbite.
1:9. And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty men that were
under him. And he went up to him, and as he was sitting on the top of a
hill, he said to him: Man of God, the king hath commanded that thou come
down.
1:10. And Elias answering, said to the captain of fifty: If I be a man
of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee, and thy fifty.
And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him, and the fifty
that were with him.
Let fire, etc... Elias was inspired to call for fire from heaven upon
these captains, who came to apprehend him; not out of a desire to
gratify any private passion; but to punish the insult offered to
religion, to confirm his mission, and to shew how vain are the efforts
of men against God, and his servants, whom he willeth to protect.
1:11. And he again sent to him another captain of fifty men, and his
fifty with him. And he said to him: Man of God: Thus saith the king:
Make haste and come down.
1:12. Elias answering, said: If I be a man of God, let fire come down
from heaven, and consume thee, and thy fifty. And fire came down from
heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
1:13. Again he sent a third captain of fifty men, and the fifty that
were with him. And when he was come, he fell upon his knees before
Elias, and besought him, and said: Man of God, despise not my life, and
the lives of thy servants that are with me.
1:14. Behold fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two first
captains of fifty men, and the fifties that were with them: but now I
beseech thee to spare my life.
1:15. And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, saying: Go down with
him, fear not. He arose therefore, and went down with him to the king,
1:16. And said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast sent
messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, as though there
were not a God in Israel, of whom thou mightest inquire the word;
therefore, from the bed on which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come
down, but thou shalt surely die.
1:17. So he died, according to the word of the Lord, which Elias spoke;
and Joram, his brother, reigned in his stead, in the second year of
Joram, the son of Josaphat, king of Juda, because he had no son.
The second year of Joram, etc... Counted from the time that he was
associated to the throne by his father Josaphat.
1:18. But the rest of the acts of Ochozias, which he did, are they not
written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?