Elijah and the ravens

17 Elijah from Tishbe, who was one of the settlers in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord lives, Israel’s God, the one I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain these years unless I say so.”

² Then the Lord’s word came to Elijah: ³ Go from here and turn east. Hide by the Cherith Brook that faces the Jordan River. ⁴ You can drink from the brook. I have also ordered the ravens to provide for you there. ⁵ Elijah went and did just what the Lord said. He stayed by the Cherith Brook that faced the Jordan River. ⁶ The ravens brought bread and meat in the mornings and evenings. He drank from the Cherith Brook. ⁷ After a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.

Elijah and the widow from Zarephath

⁸ The Lord’s word came to Elijah: ⁹ Get up and go to Zarephath near Sidon and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to take care of you. ¹⁰ Elijah left and went to Zarephath. As he came to the town gate, he saw a widow collecting sticks. He called out to her, “Please get a little water for me in this cup so I can drink.” ¹¹ She went to get some water. He then said to her, “Please get me a piece of bread.”

¹² “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any food; only a handful of flour in a jar and a bit of oil in a bottle. Look at me. I’m collecting two sticks so that I can make some food for myself and my son. We’ll eat the last of the food and then die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go and do what you said. Only make a little loaf of bread for me first. Then bring it to me. You can make something for yourself and your son after that. ¹⁴ This is what Israel’s God, the Lord, says: The jar of flour won’t decrease and the bottle of oil won’t run out until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” ¹⁵ The widow went and did what Elijah said. So the widow, Elijah, and the widow’s household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour didn’t decrease nor did the bottle of oil run out, just as the Lord spoke through Elijah.

¹⁷ After these things, the son of the widow, who was the matriarch of the household, became ill. His sickness got steadily worse until he wasn’t breathing anymore. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What’s gone wrong between us, man of God? Have you come to me to call attention to my sin and kill my son?”

¹⁹ Elijah replied, “Give your son to me.” He took her son from her and carried him to the upper room where he was staying. Elijah laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Elijah cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, why is it that you have brought such evil upon the widow that I am staying with by killing her son?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself over the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, please give this boy’s life back to him.” ²² The Lord listened to Elijah’s voice and gave the boy his life back. And he lived. ²³ Elijah brought the boy down from the upper room of the house and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴ “Now I know that you really are a man of God,” the woman said to Elijah, “and that the Lord’s word is truly in your mouth.”

Elijah versus Baal’s prophets

18 After many days, the Lord’s word came to Elijah (it was the third year of the drought): Go! Appear before Ahab. I will then send rain on the earth. ² So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.

Now the famine had become especially bad in Samaria. ³ Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace affairs. (Obadiah greatly feared the Lord. ⁴ When Jezebel killed the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred of them and hid them, fifty each in two caves. He supplied them with food and water.) ⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land and check every spring of water and every brook. Perhaps we can find some grass to keep our horses and mules alive so we don’t have to kill any of them.” ⁶ To search, they divided the land between themselves. Ahab went one way by himself, while Obadiah went a different way by himself.

⁷ While Obadiah was out searching, suddenly Elijah met up with him. When Obadiah saw him, he fell on his face. “My master!” he said. “Are you Elijah?”

⁸ Elijah replied, “I am. Go and say to your master, ‘Elijah is here!’”

⁹ Then Obadiah said, “How have I sinned that you are handing me, your servant, over to Ahab so he can kill me? ¹⁰ As surely as the Lord your God lives, there’s no nation or kingdom where my master Ahab hasn’t looked for you. They would insist, ‘He’s not here,’ but Ahab would make them swear that they couldn’t find you. ¹¹ And now you are commanding me: ‘Go and say to your master, “Elijah is here”’? ¹² But here’s what will happen: As soon as I leave you, the Lord’s spirit will carry you off somewhere—I don’t know where—then I’ll report to Ahab, but he won’t be able to find you. Then he will kill me! But your servant has feared the Lord from my youth. ¹³ Wasn’t my master told what I did when Jezebel killed the Lord’s prophets? I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets, fifty each in two caves. I also supplied them with food and water. ¹⁴ But even after all that, you tell me, ‘Say to your master, “Elijah is here”’! Ahab will kill me!”

¹⁵ Elijah said, “As surely as the Lord of heavenly forces lives, the one I serve, I will appear before Ahab today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab. He told him what had happened. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, the one who troubles Israel?”

¹⁸ Elijah answered, “I haven’t troubled Israel; you and your father’s house have! You did as much when you deserted the Lord’s commands and followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now send a message and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel. Gather the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

²⁰ Ahab sent the message to all the Israelites. He gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hobble back and forth between two opinions? If the Lord^[a] is God, follow God. If Baal is God, follow Baal.” The people gave no answer.

²² Elijah said to the people, “I am the last of the Lord’s prophets, but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. ²³ Give us two bulls. Let Baal’s prophets choose one. Let them cut it apart and set it on the wood, but don’t add fire. I’ll prepare the other bull, put it on the wood, but won’t add fire. ²⁴ Then all of you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers with fire—that’s the real God!”

All the people answered, “That’s an excellent idea.”

²⁵ So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of these bulls. Prepare it first since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but don’t add fire.”

²⁶ So they took one of the bulls that had been brought to them. They prepared it and called on Baal’s name from morning to midday. They said, “Great Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound or answer. They performed a hopping dance around the altar that had been set up.

²⁷ Around noon, Elijah started making fun of them: “Shout louder! Certainly he’s a god! Perhaps he is lost in thought or wandering or traveling somewhere.^[b] Or maybe he is asleep and must wake up!”

²⁸ So the prophets of Baal cried with a louder voice and cut themselves with swords and knives as was their custom. Their blood flowed all over them. ²⁹ As noon passed they went crazy with their ritual until it was time for the evening offering. Still there was no sound or answer, no response whatsoever.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here!” All the people closed in, and he repaired the Lord’s altar that had been damaged. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob—to whom the Lord’s word came: “Your name will be Israel.” ³² He built the stones into an altar in the Lord’s name, and he dug a trench around the altar big enough to hold two seahs^[c] of dry grain. ³³ He put the wood in order, butchered the bull, and placed the bull on the wood. “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood,” he commanded. ³⁴ “Do it a second time!” he said. So they did it a second time. “Do it a third time!” And so they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water flowed around the altar, and even the trench filled with water. ³⁶ At the time of the evening offering, the prophet Elijah drew near and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. I have done all these things at your instructions. ³⁷ Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, Lord, are the real God and that you can change their hearts.”^{[d] 38} Then the Lord’s fire fell; it consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up the water in the trench!

³⁹ All the people saw this and fell on their faces. “The Lord is the real God! The Lord is the real God!” they exclaimed.

⁴⁰ Elijah said to them, “Seize Baal’s prophets! Don’t let any escape!” The people seized the prophets, and Elijah brought them to the Kishon Brook and killed them there. ⁴¹ Elijah then said to Ahab, “Get up! Celebrate with food and drink because I hear the sound of a rainstorm coming.” ⁴² So Ahab got up to celebrate with food and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. He bowed down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ He said to his assistant, “Please get up and look toward the sea.”

So the assistant did so. He said, “I don’t see anything.”

Seven times Elijah said, “Do it again.”

⁴⁴ The seventh time the assistant said, “I see a small cloud the size of a human hand coming up from the sea.”

Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Pull yourself together, go down the mountain, and don’t let the rain hold you back.’” ⁴⁵ After a little while, the sky became dark with clouds, and a wind came up with a huge rainstorm. Ahab was already riding on his way to Jezreel, ⁴⁶ but the Lord’s power strengthened Elijah. He gathered up his clothes and ran in front of Ahab until he came to Jezreel.

Elijah runs to Mount Horeb

19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all Baal’s prophets with the sword. ² Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this message: “May the gods do whatever they want to me if by this time tomorrow I haven’t made your life like the life of one of them.”

³ Elijah was terrified. He got up and ran for his life. He arrived at Beer-sheba in Judah and left his assistant there. ⁴ He himself went farther on into the desert a day’s journey. He finally sat down under a solitary broom bush. He longed for his own death: “It’s more than enough, Lord! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors.” ⁵ He lay down and slept under the solitary broom bush.

Then suddenly a messenger tapped him and said to him, “Get up! Eat something!” ⁶ Elijah opened his eyes and saw flatbread baked on glowing coals and a jar of water right by his head. He ate and drank, and then went back to sleep. ⁷ The Lord’s messenger returned a second time and tapped him. “Get up!” the messenger said. “Eat something, because you have a difficult road ahead of you.” ⁸ Elijah got up, ate and drank, and went refreshed by that food for forty days and nights until he arrived at Horeb, God’s mountain. ⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord’s word came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ Elijah replied, “I’ve been very passionate for the Lord God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars, and they have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too!”

¹¹ The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance. A voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

¹⁴ He said, “I’ve been very passionate for the Lord God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars, and they have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “Go back through the desert to Damascus and anoint Hazael as king of Aram. ¹⁶ Also anoint Jehu, Nimshi’s son, as king of Israel; and anoint Elisha from Abel-meholah, Shaphat’s son, to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷ Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. Whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸ But I have preserved those who remain in Israel, totaling seven thousand—all those whose knees haven’t bowed down to Baal and whose mouths haven’t kissed him.”

¹⁹ So Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, Shaphat’s son. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke. Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. ²⁰ Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.”

Elijah replied, “Go! I’m not holding you back!” ²¹ Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.