Bible Strands
2 Kings 1:2
Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Ahaziah of Samaria lies injured after falling through the lattice of his upper room. He dispatches messengers to consult a foreign deity for his recovery.
The words — The Hebrew וַ/יִּפֹּ֨ל (va/i.yi.Pol) denotes a sudden downward collapse, while בַּ/עֲלִיָּת֛/וֹ (ba./'a.li.ya.T/o) specifies the location as his upper room.
The thread — This inquiry of a foreign god echoes the later confrontation in 2 Kings 1:16, where Elijah questions the king’s lack of faith in Israel’s God. The pattern of seeking divine guidance during illness also appears in 2 Kings 8:7 and anticipates the disciple-master relationship noted in Matthew 10:25.
Why it lands — The text demands a choice between trusting the God of Israel or relying on established pagan rituals when facing crisis. It forces the reader to examine what authority they consult when conventional remedies fail.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baal–zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 1:16 And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the LORD says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.”
- 2 Kings 8:7 Then Elisha came to Damascus while Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and the king was told, “The man of God has come here.”
- Matthew 10:25 It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
- Mark 3:22 And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.”
- Isaiah 37:19 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
- 1 Kings 11:33 For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
- 2 Kings 1:3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are on your way to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’
- 2 Kings 1:6 They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’”
- Isaiah 37:12 Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?
- Luke 11:15 but some of them said, “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, that He drives out demons.”