Nevertheless Ahab in his heart was afraid, and had sad forebodings.  Knowing his peril, and alarmed at the words of a true prophet, he disguised himself for the battle; but a chance arrow, shot at a venture, penetrated through the joints of his armor, and he was mortally wounded.  His blood ran from his wound into the chariot, and when the chariot was washed in the pool of Samaria, after Ahab had expired, the dogs licked up his blood, as Elijah had predicted.

The death of Ahab put an end to the fighting; nor was Jehoshaphat injured, although he wore his royal robes.  The Syrian general had given orders to slay only the king of Israel.  At one time, however, the king of Judah was in great peril, being mistaken for Ahab; but when his pursuers discovered their mistake, they turned from the pursuit.

It seems that Jezebel survived her husband fourteen years, and virtually ruled the kingdom, for she was a woman of ability.  She exercised the same influence over her son Ahaziah that she had over her husband, so that the son like the father served Baal and made Israel to sin.

To this young king was Elijah also sent.  Ahaziah had been seriously injured by an accidental fall from his upper chamber, through the lattice, to the court yard below.  He sent to the priests of Baal, to inquire whether 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.