(5) Turned back unto him.--Unto Ahaziah, as the Syriac and Vulgate actually read. Literally, And the messengers returned unto him, and he said, &c. Though Elijah was unknown to the envoys, such a menacing interposition would certainly be regarded as' a Divine warning, which it was perilous to disregard.

Why are ye now turned back?--Why have ye returned? with emphasis on the "Why."

Verse 5. - And when the messengers turned back; rather, when the messengers returned; i.e. when they reached the presence of Ahaziah, he perceived at once that they could not have been to Ekron and come back in the time. He therefore inquired of them, Why are ye now turned back? "Why have ye not completed your journey?"

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.And when the messengers turned back unto him,.... To Ahaziah king of Israel, as they did as soon as Elijah was gone from them; concluding from his habit, his gravity, and the authority with which he spoke, that he was a prophet of the Lord, and especially from his knowledge of them, and of what they were sent about:

he said unto them, why are ye now turned back? for, by the time they had been gone, he knew they could never have been at Ekron and returned.