Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

And there falleth a fire of Jehovah, and consumeth the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and the water that is in the trench it hath licked up.

Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and drinking up the water in the drain.

Then the fire of the Lord fell down and devoured the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and even the dust, and it absorbed the water that was in the trench.

The fire of the Lord fell - This cannot have been a flash of lightning. It was altogether, in its nature as well as in its opportuneness, miraculous. Compare the marginal references for the conduct of the people.

Then the fire of the Lord fell - It did not burst out from the altar; this might still, notwithstanding the water, have afforded some ground for suspicion that fire had been concealed, after the manner of the heathens, under the altar.
Pindar's account of the Rhodians' settling is the isle of Rhodes, and their first sacrifice there, bears a near affinity to the account here given: the shower of gold descending on the sacrifice offered up without fire, to show the approbation of their god, is little more than a poetic account of the above transactions.
Καιτοι γαρ αιθουσας εχοντες
Σπερμ' ανεβαν φλογος ου
Τευξαν δ' απυροις ἱεροις
Αλσος εν ακροπολει· κεινοισι μεν ξαν -
θαν αγαγων νεφελαι·
Πολυν ὑσε χρυσον
Pind. Olymp. Od. 7, ver. 86.
The Rhodians, mindful of their sire's behest,
Straight in the citadel an altar reared;
But with imperfect rites the Power addressed,
And without fire their sacrifice prepared;
Yet Jove, approving, o'er the assembly spread
A yellow cloud, that dropped with golden dews.
West.
Consumed the burnt-sacrifice - The process of this consumption is very remarkable, and all calculated to remove the possibility of a suspicion that there was any concealed fire.
1. The fire came down from heaven.
2. The pieces of the sacrifice were first consumed.
3. The wood next, to show that it was not even by means of the wood that the flesh was burned.
4. The twelve stones were also consumed, to show that it was no common fire, but one whose agency nothing could resist.
5. The dust, the earth of which the altar was constructed, was burned up.
6. The water that was in the trench was, by the action of this fire, entirely evaporated.
7. The action of this fire was in every case downward, contrary to the nature of all earthly and material fire. Nothing can be more simple and artless than this description, yet how amazingly full and satisfactory is the whole account!

Then the fire of the Lord fell,.... An extraordinary fire from God out of heaven, as the effects of it show:
and consumed the burnt sacrifice; as it had done in former instances, Leviticus 9:24, and besides this, which is still more extraordinary,
and the wood, and the stones, and the dust; of the altar, thereby signifying that even such were not to be used any more:
and licked up the water that was in the trench; around the altar, see 1-Kings 18:32.

Consumed - Solomon's altar was consecrated by fire from heaven; but this was destroyed, because no more to be used.