her he should recover or not. But Elijah by command of God
had intercepted the king's messengers, and suddenly appearing before
them, as was his custom, confronted them with these words: "Is there no
God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron?
Now, therefore, say unto the king, Thou shalt not come down from the bed
on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." On their return to
Ahaziah, without delivering their message to the god of the Phoenicians
or Philistines, the king said: "Why are ye now turned back?" They
repeated the words of the strange man who had turned them back; and the
king said: "What manner of man was he who came up to meet you?" They
answered, "He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather around
his loins." The king cried, "It is Elijah the Tishbite." Again his enemy
had found him!

Whereupon Ahaziah sent a band of fifty chosen soldiers to arrest the
prophet, who had retired to the top of a steep and rugged hill, probably
Carmel. The captain of the troop approached, and commanded him in the
name of the king to come down, addressing him as the man of God. "If I
am a man of God," said Elijah, "let fire come down from heaven and
consume thee and thy fifty." The fire came down and consumed them.
Again the king sent another band of fifty with their captain, who met
with the same fate. Again the king sent another band of fifty men, the
captain of which came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought
him, saying, "O man of God! I pray thee let my life and the lives of
these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight." And the angel of the
Lord said unto Elijah, "Go down with him; be not afraid of him." And he
arose and went with the soldiers to the king, repeating to him the words
he had sent before, that he should not recover, but should surely die.

So Ahaziah died, as Elijah prophesied, and Jehoram (or Joram) reigned in
his stead,--a brother of the late king, who did not personally worship
Baal, but who allowed the queen-mother to continue to protect idolatry.
The war which had been begun by Ahab against the Syrians still
continued, to recover Ramoth-Gilead, and the stronghold was finally
taken by the united efforts of Judah and Israel; but Joram was wounded,
and returned to Jezreel to be cured.

With the advent of Elijah a reaction against idolatry had set in. The
people were awed by his terrible power, and also by the influence of
Elisha, on whom his mantle