Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty - i:e., an officer with a body of 50 soldiers at his command. Any appearance of cruelty that there is in the fate of the two captains and their men will be removed on a full consideration of the circumstances. God being the king of Israel, Ahaziah was bound to govern the kingdom according to the divine law: to apprehend the Lord's prophet, for discharging a commanded duty, was the act of an impious and notorious rebel. The captains abetted the king in his rebellion; and they exceeded their military duty by contemptuous insults.
Man of God. In using this term they either spoke derisively, believing him to be no true prophet, or, if they regarded him as a true prophet, the summons to him to surrender himself bound to the king was a still more flagrant insult; the language of the second captain being worse than that of the first.