Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 1:10

"And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty." — 2 Kings 1:10 (ASV)

And Elijah answered and said. —So the Syriac and Septuagint. Hebrew, and spake.

If. —Hebrew: And if a man of the god I (truly be). This “and” closely connects the prophet’s reply with the captain’s demand. All the versions except the Septuagint omit it, with some Hebrew manuscripts.

Then. —Omit.

Let fire come down from heaven. —A phrase found only here and in 2 Chronicles 7:1. Ewald considers this a mark of the later origin of this tradition about Elijah. The words “come down” are at any rate appropriate, as repeating the captain’s bidding to the prophet.

Consume. — Eat, or devour. (Compare to 1 Kings 18:38.) Here, as there, Jehovah is represented as vindicating His own cause by the means most adequate to the necessities of the time, namely, a manifest miracle.