(6) Thou sendest.--Art sending. Elijah had said, ye are going, in his question to the messengers (2Kings 1:3). (See Note on 2Kings 1:4.) Bahr is wrong in supposing the servants anxious to shift the prophet's blame from themselves to their lord, or that Elijah had addressed them as accomplices in the king's guilt. They had no choice but to obey the royal mandate.

Verse 6. - There came a man. It is not likely that the messengers did not know Elijah by sight. He was too prominent a person in the history of the time, and too remarkable in his appearance, not to have been recognized, at any rate by some of them. But they thought it best to keep back the prophet's name, and to call him simply "a man" (ish) - perhaps actuated by good will towards Elijah, perhaps by a fear for their own safety, such as had been felt by Obadiah (1 Kings 18:8-14).

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 they said unto him, there came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, go, turn again unto the king that sent you,.... King Ahaziah:

and say unto him; and then they repeated all that is said by the angel to Elijah, and he had delivered to them, 2 Kings 1:3 and which was a sufficient reason for their turning back, since they got a full answer from a man of God, of what they were to inquire of at Ekron; which was, whether the king would recover of this disease or not.