Chronological

The Prophet Elijah Arises

17 Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe of Gilead said to Ahab, “As Yahweh lives,^[a] the God of Israel before whom I stand, there shall surely not be dew nor rain these years except by my command.”^{[b] 2} Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ³ “Go from this place and turn to the east; you must hide yourself in the Wadi^[c] Kerith which faces the Jordan.^{[d] 4} It shall be that you shall drink from the wadi,^[e] and I have commanded the crows to sustain you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh. He went and stayed in the Wadi^[f] Kerith which faces the Jordan.^{[g] 6} The crows were bringing bread and meat in the morning for him and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the wadi.^{[h] 7} It happened after a while^[i] that the wadi^[j] dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

⁸ Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁹ “Get up and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to sustain you.” ¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath and came to the gate of the city. There was a widow woman gathering wood, so he called to her, and he said, “Please bring a little water for me in a vessel so that I can drink.” ¹¹ She went to fetch it, and he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² She said, “As Yahweh your God lives,^[k] surely I do not have a cake, but only a handful of flour^[l] in the jar and a little olive oil in the jug. Here I am gathering a few pieces of wood, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son, that we might eat it and die.” ¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do according to your word; only make for me a small bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me. Make it for yourself and for your son afterward. ¹⁴ For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘The jar of flour will not be emptied and the jug of olive oil will not run out until the day Yahweh gives rain on the surface of the earth.’” ¹⁵ So she went and did according to the word of Elijah; then both she and he ate with her household for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour was not emptied and the jug of olive oil did not run out, according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of Elijah.

¹⁷ It happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was very severe until there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me,^[m] O man of God, that you have come to me to make known my guilt and to cause my son to die?” ¹⁹ Then he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her lap and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and he laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, are you also causing evil to come upon the widow with whom I am dwelling as an alien by causing her son to die?” ²¹ He stretched himself out on the child three times and called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, please let the life of this child return within him.” ²² Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned within him, and he lived. ²³ Elijah then took the child and brought him down from the upper room to the house and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, “Look, your son is alive.” ²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now this I know, that you are a man of God and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.”

War between Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

18 It happened many days later that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab so that I may give rain on the surface of the earth.” ² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. ³ Ahab summoned Obadiah who was over the house. (Now Obadiah was fearing Yahweh greatly. ⁴ It had happened that when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties^[n] in the cave and sustained them with food and water.) ⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis.^[o] Perhaps we may find green grass that we may keep horses and mules alive and that we might not lose any of the animals.” ⁶ So they divided the land for themselves in order to pass through it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷ It happened that Obadiah was on the way, and suddenly Elijah was there to meet him. When he recognized him, he fell on his face and said, “Is this you, my lord Elijah?” ⁸ He said to him, “I am. Go, say to your lord, ‘Elijah is here.’” ⁹ He said, “How have I sinned that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? ¹⁰ As Yahweh your God lives,^[p] surely there is not a nation or a kingdom to which my lord has not sent me to seek you. If they would say, ‘He is not here,’ then he would make the kingdom or the nation swear that it could not find you. ¹¹ Now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord: “Elijah is here.”’ ¹² And it will happen that I will go from you and the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you up to where I do not know. Then I will come to tell Ahab, but he will not find you, and then he will kill me, even though your servant has feared Yahweh from my youth. ¹³ Has it not been told to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh? I hid a hundred men of the prophets of Yahweh by fifties^[q] in the cave, and I sustained them with food and water. ¹⁴ Now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your lord: “Elijah is here,”’ and he will kill me.” ¹⁵ Elijah said, “As Yahweh of hosts lives,^[r] before whom I stand, I will certainly show myself to him today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and he told him, so Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you who throws Israel into confusion?” ¹⁸ He said, “I did not throw Israel into confusion; rather you and the house of your father have by forsaking the commands of Yahweh when you went after the Baals! ¹⁹ So then, send word and assemble all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at the table of Jezebel.”

²⁰ So Ahab sent word among the Israelites,^[s] and he assembled the prophets to Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah approached to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping over two opinions? If Yahweh is God, go after him; but if Baal, go after him.” But the people did not answer him a word. ²² Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of Yahweh, but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men. ²³ Let them give us two bulls, and let them choose for themselves one bull, cut him in pieces, and put it on the wood, but don’t let them start a fire on it. I will prepare the other bull and set it on the wood, but I will put no fire on it. ²⁴ Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh, and it shall be that the god who answers by fire, he is God.”^[t] Then all the people answered and said, “The word is good!”

²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are the majority, and call on the name of your god, but don’t set fire under it.” ²⁶ So they took the bull that he allowed to them, prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and there was no answer, so they limped^[u] about the altar which they had made. ²⁷ It happened at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god! Perhaps he is meditating, or is using the bathroom,^[v] or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must wake up!” ²⁸ So they called out with a loud voice, and they cut themselves with swords and with spears as was their custom, until the blood poured out over them. ²⁹ It happened as noon passed, they raged until the time of the evening offering, but there was no voice, there was no answer, and no one paid attention.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me,” so all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh that had been destroyed. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of God came, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” ³² With them, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench which would have held^[w] about two seahs of seed, all around the altar. ³³ And he arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces, and placed it on the wood.^[x] Then he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” ³⁴ He said, “Do it again!” They did it again. He said, “Do it a third time!” So they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water went all around the altar, and the trench also was filled with water.

³⁶ It happened at the offering of the evening oblation, Elijah the prophet went near, and he said, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all of these things by your words. ³⁷ Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, are God and that you have turned their hearts back again.” ³⁸ Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and it consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust; and the water which was in the trench it licked up! ³⁹ When all the people saw, they fell on their faces and said, “Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God!” ⁴⁰ Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; don’t let any man of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the wadi^[y] of Kishon and killed them there.

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the noise of rain.” ⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and to drink while Elijah went to the top of Carmel, bent down to the earth, and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ Then he said to his servant, “Please go and look in the direction of the sea.” So he went up and looked; then he said, “There is nothing.” Then he said, “Go back,” seven times. ⁴⁴ It happened that at the seventh time, he said, “Look, there is a small cloud, as the hand of a man, coming up from the sea.” Then Elijah said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Harness your horses and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” ⁴⁵ In no time^[z] the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was heavy rain. Ahab rode and he went to Jezreel, ⁴⁶ but the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab as one comes to Jezreel.

Elijah Flees to Horeb

19 Then Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “Thus may the gods do to me, and may they add to it, surely at this time tomorrow I will make your life as the life of one of them!” ³ Then he became afraid,^[aa] got up, and fled for his life.^[ab] He came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. ⁴ Then he went into the wilderness one day’s journey, and he went and sat under a certain broom tree. Then he asked Yahweh that he might die,^[ac] and he said, “It is enough now, Yahweh; take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”^{[ad] 5} He lay down and fell asleep under a certain broom tree, and suddenly this angel was touching him and said to him, “Get up, eat!” ⁶ He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals was near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down. ⁷ The angel of Yahweh appeared a second time and touched him and said, “Get up, eat, for the journey is greater than you.” ⁸ So he got up, ate, drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights up to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elijah Encounters Yahweh at Horeb

⁹ He came to the cave there and spent the night there. Suddenly the word of Yahweh came to him and asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”^{[ae] 10} Then he said, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts, for the Israelites^[af] have forsaken your covenant. They have demolished your altars, and they have killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left over, and they seek to take my life. ¹¹ He^[ag] said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Suddenly Yahweh was passing by, with a great and strong wind ripping the mountains and crushing rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake was a fire, but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. ¹³ It happened at the moment Elijah heard, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, “Elijah, why are you here?”^{[ah] 14} He said, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of Hosts, for the Israelites^[ai] have forsaken your covenant, demolished your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; I alone am left, and they seek to take my life!” ¹⁵ Then Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. Go and anoint Hazael as king over Aram; ¹⁶ and Jehu son of Nimshi you shall anoint as king over Israel. You shall also anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-Meholah as prophet in your place. ¹⁷ It shall be that the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. ¹⁸ I will leave in Israel seven thousand, all of the knees that have not bowed down to Baal and all of the mouths that have not kissed him.”

¹⁹ So he went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him. When he and the twelve passed Elijah, he threw his cloak on him. ²⁰ Then he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will go after you.” Then he said, “Go, return, for what I have done to you?” ²¹ So he returned from after him, and he took a pair of oxen and slaughtered them, and with the yoke of the oxen he boiled the flesh and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and served him.