And again he 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.

And again he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he spoke and said to him, Man of God, thus says the king: Come down quickly!

And he turneth and sendeth unto him another head of fifty and his fifty, and he answereth and speaketh unto him, 'O man of God, thus said the king, Haste, come down.'

Then the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty men; and he said to Elijah, O man of God, the king says, Come down quickly.

Again he sent to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. And he went up and said to him, 'Man of God, the king has said, 'Come down quickly.'

And again, he sent to him another leader of fifty, and the fifty with him. And he said to him, "Man of God, thus says the king: Hurry, descend."

Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, (h) O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
(h) He spoke this in mockery, and therefore provoked God's wrath so much more.

Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty,.... The king, not being at all terrified with the awful judgment upon the former, sends another:
and he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, come down quickly; he flouts the prophet in the same manner as the former, and in the king's name commands him to come down, and that immediately; which the king added to his orders, or he himself, signifying he would not be trifled with, if he did not come down directly, he would force him.

The same fate befell a second captain, whom the king sent after the death of the first. He was more insolent than the first, "both because he was not brought to his senses by hearing of his punishment, and because he increased his impudence by adding make haste (מהרה)." - C. a Lap. For וידבּר ויּען the lxx (Cod. Alex.) have καὶ ἀνέβη καὶ ἐλάλησε, so that they read ויּעל. The correctness of this reading, according to which ויּען would be an error of the pen, is favoured not only by ויּעל in 2-Kings 1:9 and 2-Kings 1:13, but also by וידבּר which follows; for, as a general rule, ויּען would be followed by ויּאמר. The repetition of this judicial miracle was meant to show in the most striking manner not only the authority which rightfully belonged to the prophet, but also the help and protection which the Lord gave to His servants. At the same time, the question as to the "morality of the miracle," about which some have had grave doubts, is not set at rest by the remark of Thenius, that "the soldiers who were sent come into consideration here purely as instruments of a will acting in opposition to Jehovah." The third captain also carried out he ungodly command of the king, and he was not slain (2-Kings 1:13.). The first two must therefore have been guilty of some crime, which they and their people had to expiate with their death. This crime did not consist merely in their addressing him as "man of God," for the third addressed Elijah in the same way (2-Kings 1:13), but in their saying "Man of God, come down." This summons to the prophet, to allow himself to be led as a prisoner before the king, involved a contempt not only of the prophetic office in the person of Elijah, but also of the Lord, who had accredited him by miracles as His servant. The two captains who were first sent not only did what they were bound to do as servants of the king, but participated in the ungodly disposition of their lord (συμβαίνοντες τῷ σκοπῷ τοῦ πεπομφότος - Theodoret); they attacked the Lord with reckless daring in the person of the prophet, and the second captain, with his "Come down quickly," did it even more strongly than the first. This sin was punished, and that not by the prophet, but by the Lord Himself, who fulfilled the word of His servant.
(Note: Οἱ τοῦ προφήτου κατηγοροῦντες κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ προφήτου κινοῦσι τὰς γλώττας, as Theodoret very aptly observes.)
What Elijah here did was an act of holy zeal for the honour of the Lord, in the spirit of the old covenant, under which God destroyed the insolent despisers of His name with fire and sword, to manifest the energy of His holy majesty by the side of the dead idols of the heathen. But this act cannot be transferred to the times of the new covenant, as is clearly shown in Luke 9:54-55, where Christ does not blame Elijah for what he did, but admonishes His disciples, who overlooked the difference between the economy of the law and that of the gospel, and in their carnal zeal wanted to imitate what Elijah had done in divine zeal for the honour of the Lord, which had been injured in his own person.

And said - He discovers more petulancy than the former; and shews, how little he was moved by the former example.