2 Kings 1:11

Again also[R.V. And again] he sent Ahaziah has no regard for the lives that have been sacrificed. Josephus pictures him as -exceedingly angry when the destruction of these fifty was made known to him" (Ant.IX. 2. 1). Probably also his fierceness was aggravated by his hopeless sickness.

And he answered The verbs which signify -to answer" are used both in Hebrew and in Greek for remarks made where, as here, no question has been asked.

Come down quickly The second captain goes in the spirit of the king and adds to the message of the first the demand of speedy obedience. We may therefore consider that his punishment was more deserved than that of the former. But the narrative makes it quite clear that both by the king and his people Jehovah was forgotten, and that some signal mark of His anger was called for to check the wandering after other gods, which had grown up out of Jeroboam's sin.