The Lord's Judgement of Ahaziah: 1:1–17 Like his father, Ahaziah meets Elijah. The occasion for their confrontation is an injury sustained by the king when falling out of the window (probably, although lattice is obscure) of his upper room (v. 2). His reaction is to send messengers (Hb. malʾaḵîm) to consult one of the many local manifestations of Baal (cf. 1 Kgs. 18:18) about his fate: Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron (a Philistine city about twenty-five miles west of Jerusalem). In response, the LORD also sends a messenger (Hb. malʾāk, angel; cf. 1 Kgs. 19:5–7), with the result that Elijah intercepts the king’s men on the road with a prophecy about Ahaziah’s death. Not for the first time in Kings, a negative oracle addressed to a king elicits an attempt to capture the prophet who delivered it…