And Elijah answered and said. — So Syriac and LXX. Heb., and spake.
If. — Heb., 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 LXX. omit it, with some Hebrew MSS.
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. (Comp. 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, viz., a manifest miracle.