and his blood flowed into the chariot,
so that the dogs licked it when they had come home.
Then his son straightway succeeded to his kingdom,
called Ahaziah, a very evil doer.
He walked even as his infamous father and his wicked mother
had set him the evil example, and within two years
he lost his life, and his fleeting kingdom.
He fell off a staircase, and so lay sick.
He sent to the idol-god, to enquire of him,
and Elijah met the men whom he sent,
and straightway said to them even as God's angel had told him,
'What, then! is not the Almighty God in the nation of Israel,
and ye go to an idol-god, to seek your healing?
Now therefore saith the Almighty, that the king shall not arise
from the bed whereon he lieth, but shall die.'
Then the messengers returned again to the king,
and showed him what the prophet had said to them by the way.
Then the king straightway sent fifty men
to the prophet of God, desiring to call him.
Then said the chief to the venerable prophet,
'Go now, man of God, from the grassy hill,
the king desireth thee to come to him.'
Then Elijah answered boldly, and said,
'If I am a man of God, let God's fire consume you.'
Lo then! with these words fire came down from Heaven,
and consumed the fifty men with all their company.
Then the king sent again other fifty
up to the hill where Elijah sat;
and it happened to them also even as to the other flock,
that they were all suddenly consumed
by the crackling flame of the heavenly fire.
Then sent the king yet a third time to him
