(3) But the angel . . . said.--Rather, Now the angel . . . had said. "The angel" is right. (Comp. 2Kings 19:35.) Reuss strangely renders: "Mais une revelation de l'Eternel parla;" and adds the note, "Et non pas un ange" (!).

Arise, go up.--Samaria lay on a hill, and the prophet was to meet the messengers at the gates.

King of Samaria.--Not Israel, a mark of Judaean feeling.

And say.--Literally, speak. LXX., Vulgate, and Arabic add "saying," but comp. 1Kings 21:5-6.

Is it not because.--Omit "not." So 2Kings 1:6.

Ye go.--Are going.

A God in Israel.--Comp. Micah 4:5 : "For all peoples will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever."

Verse 3. - The angel of the Lord. It would be better to translate, with the LXX., an angel (ἄγγελος, not ὁ ἄγγελος). An angel had appeared to Elijah on a previous occasion (1 Kings 19:5, 7). Elijah the Tishbite (comp. 1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 21:17, 28; 2 Kings 1:8; and for the meaning of the expression, hat-Tishbi, see the comment on 1 Kings 17:1). Arise, go up. Elijah was, apparently, in the low tract of the Shefelah, or in Sharon, when the messengers started, and was thus commanded to go up and meet them, or intercept them on their journey before they descended into the plain. God would not have the insult to his majesty, carried out. Is it not because there is not a God in Israel? rather, Is it that there is no God at all in Israel? The double negative is intensitive, and implies that the king's consultation of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron, is a complete and absolute denial of the Divinity of Jehovah. To consult a foreign oracle is equivalent to raying that the voice of God is wholly silent in one's own land. This was going further in apostasy than Ahab had gone (see 1 Kings 22:6-9).

1:1-8 When Ahaziah rebelled against the Lord, Moab revolted from him. Sin weakens and impoverishes us. Man's revolt from God is often punished by the rebellion of those who owe subjection to him. Ahaziah fell through a lattice, or railing. Wherever we go, there is but a step between us and death. A man's house is his castle, but not to secure him against God's judgments. The whole creation, which groans under the burden of man's sin, will, at length, sink and break under the weight like this lattice. He is never safe that has God for his enemy. Those that will not inquire of the word of God for their comfort, shall hear it to their terror, whether they will or no.But the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah,.... One of the ministering spirits sent by the Lord to him:

arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria: that is, the king of Israel, whose capital city was Samaria:

is it not because there is not a God in Israel; known, acknowledged, and worshipped there, of whom there had been sufficient proof of his deity and divine perfections, as omniscience, omnipotence, &c.

that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? about future things, when they had God nigh unto them, fully acquainted with them, as this message shows.