2 Kings 1:12

Said (spake) unto them. — LXX. and Syriac, “unto him,” which seems original.

The fire of God. — “The” is not in the Hebrew. The LXX., Vulgate, Arabic, and Targum, with some MSS., omit “of God.” The phrase occurs in the sense of lightning (Job 1:16).

Consumed him and his fifty. — According to Thenius, the story of the destruction of the captains And their companies emphasises (1) the authority properly belonging to the prophet; (2) the help and protection which Jehovah bestows on His prophets. The captains and their men are simply conceived as instruments of a will opposing itself to Jehovah, and are accordingly annihilated. These considerations, he thinks, render irrelevant all questions about the moral justice of their fate, and comparative degrees of guilt. (Comp. 2 Kings 2:23, seq., 2 Kings 6:17.)