¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are.^(A) He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.^(B)

Elijah Announces a Great Drought

17 Now Elijah^(A) the Tishbite, from Tishbe^[a] in Gilead,^(B) said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain^(C) in the next few years except at my word.”

²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.^(A)

¹⁵ “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human,^(A) like you. We are bringing you good news,^(B) telling you to turn from these worthless things^(C) to the living God,^(D) who made the heavens and the earth^(E) and the sea and everything in them.^(F)

Elijah and Obadiah

18 After a long time, in the third^(A) year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present^(B) yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain^(C) on the land.”

⁶ They have power to shut up the heavens^(A) so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying;^(B) and they have power to turn the waters into blood^(C) and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

² God did not reject his people,^(A) whom he foreknew.^(B) Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel:

²⁶ But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”^(A)