⁹ So Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord; Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.^(A)

Punishment Is Inevitable

15 Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!^(A)

¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.^(A)

¹⁷ Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there; he administered justice there to Israel and built there an altar to the Lord.^(A)

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me,” and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down;^{(A) 31} Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”;^{(B) 32} with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed.^{(C) 33} Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”^{(D) 34} Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time, ³⁵ so that the water ran all around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

³⁶ At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding.^{(E) 37} Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.” ³⁸ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust and even licked up the water that was in the trench.^(F)

² Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’^(A)

⁸ And you shall go down to Gilgal ahead of me; then I will come down to you to present burnt offerings and offer sacrifices of well-being. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”^(A)

¹² They answered, “Yes, there he is just ahead of you. Hurry; he has come just now to the town because the people have a sacrifice today at the shrine.^(A)