Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 1:12

"And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty." — 2 Kings 1:12 (ASV)

Said (spoke) to them. The Septuagint and Syriac versions read “to him,” which seems to be the original reading.

The fire of God. “The” is not in the Hebrew. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Arabic, and Targum, along with some manuscripts, omit “of God.” The phrase occurs in the sense of lightning (Job 1:16).

Consumed him and his fifty. According to Thenius, the story of the destruction of the captains and their companies emphasizes two main points:

1. the authority properly belonging to the prophet;
2. the help and protection which Jehovah bestows on His prophets.

Thenius further explains that the captains and their men are simply conceived as instruments of a will opposing itself to Jehovah and are accordingly annihilated. He believes these considerations render irrelevant all questions about the moral justice of their fate and any comparative degrees of guilt. (Compare 2 Kings 2:23 and following; 2 Kings 6:17.)