1 Kings 12-22

Living Bible

12 Rehoboam’s inauguration was at Shechem, and all Israel came for the coronation ceremony. ^2-4 Jeroboam, who was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, heard about the plans from his friends. They urged him to attend, so he joined the rest of Israel at Shechem and was the ringleader in getting the people to make certain demands upon Rehoboam.

“Your father was a hard master,” they told Rehoboam. “We don’t want you as our king unless you promise to treat us better than he did.”

⁵ “Give me three days to think this over,” Rehoboam replied. “Come back then for my answer.” So the people left.

⁶ Rehoboam talked it over with the old men who had counseled his father Solomon.

“What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

⁷ And they replied, “If you give them a pleasant reply and agree to be good to them and serve them well, you can be their king forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam refused the old men’s counsel and called in the young men with whom he had grown up.

⁹ “What do you think I should do?” he asked them.

¹⁰ And the young men replied, “Tell them, ‘If you think my father was hard on you, well, I’ll be harder! ¹¹ Yes, my father was harsh, but I’ll be even harsher! My father used whips on you, but I’ll use scorpions!’”

¹² So when Jeroboam and the people returned three days later, ^13-14 the new king answered them roughly. He ignored the old men’s advice and followed that of the young men; ¹⁵ so the king refused the people’s demands. (But the Lord’s hand was in it—he caused the new king to do this in order to fulfill his promise to Jeroboam, made through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.)

^16-17 When the people realized that the king meant what he said and was refusing to listen to them, they began shouting, “Down with David and all his relatives! Let’s go home! Let Rehoboam be king of his own family!”

And they all deserted him except for the tribe of Judah, who remained loyal and accepted Rehoboam as their king. ¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Adoram (who was in charge of the draft) to conscript men from the other tribes, a great mob stoned him to death. But King Rehoboam escaped by chariot and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And Israel has been in rebellion against the dynasty of David to this day.

²⁰ When the people of Israel learned of Jeroboam’s return from Egypt, he was asked to come before an open meeting of all the people; and there he was made king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah^[a] continued under the kingship of the family of David.

²¹ When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he summoned his army—all the able-bodied men of Judah and Benjamin: 180,000 special troops—to force the rest of Israel to acknowledge him as their king. ²² But God sent this message to Shemaiah, the prophet:

^23-24 “Tell Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin that they must not fight against their brothers, the people of Israel. Tell them to disband and go home, for what has happened to Rehoboam is according to my wish.” So the army went home as the Lord had commanded.

²⁵ Jeroboam now built the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and it became his capital. Later he built Penuel. ²⁶ Jeroboam thought, “Unless I’m careful, the people will want a descendant of David as their king. ²⁷ When they go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple, they will become friendly with King Rehoboam; then they will kill me and ask him to be their king instead.”

²⁸ So on the advice of his counselors, the king had two golden calf idols made and told the people, “It’s too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship; from now on these will be your gods—they rescued you from your captivity in Egypt!”

²⁹ One of these calf idols was placed in Bethel and the other in Dan. ³⁰ This was of course a great sin, for the people worshiped them. ³¹ He also made shrines on the hills and ordained priests from the rank and file of the people—even those who were not from the priestly tribe of Levi. ^32-33 Jeroboam also announced that the annual Tabernacle Festival would be held at Bethel on the first of November^[b] (a date he decided upon himself), similar to the annual festival at Jerusalem; he himself offered sacrifices upon the altar to the calves at Bethel and burned incense to them. And it was there at Bethel that he ordained priests for the shrines on the hills.

13 As Jeroboam approached the altar to burn incense to the golden calf idol, a prophet of the Lord from Judah walked up to him. ² Then, at the Lord’s command, the prophet shouted, “O altar, the Lord says that a child named Josiah shall be born into the family line of David, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests from the shrines on the hills who come here to burn incense; and men’s bones shall be burned upon you.”

³ Then he gave this proof that his message was from the Lord: “This altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will spill to the ground.”

⁴ The king was very angry with the prophet for saying this. He shouted to his guards, “Arrest that man!” and shook his fist at him. Instantly the king’s arm became paralyzed in that position; he couldn’t pull it back again! ⁵ At the same moment a wide crack appeared in the altar and the ashes poured out, just as the prophet had said would happen. For this was the prophet’s proof that God had been speaking through him.

⁶ “Oh, please, please,” the king cried out to the prophet, “beg the Lord your God to restore my arm again.”

So he prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm became normal again.

⁷ Then the king said to the prophet, “Come to the palace with me and rest awhile and have some food; and I’ll give you a reward because you healed my arm.”

⁸ But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn’t go into it; nor would I eat or drink even water in this place! ⁹ For the Lord has given me strict orders not to eat anything or drink any water while I’m here, and not to return to Judah by the road I came on.”

¹⁰ So he went back another way.

¹¹ As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons went home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.

¹² “Which way did he go?” the old prophet asked. So they told him.

¹³ “Quick, saddle the donkey,” the old man said. And when they had saddled the donkey for him, ¹⁴ he rode after the prophet and found him sitting under an oak tree.

“Are you the prophet who came from Judah?” he asked him.

“Yes,” he replied, “I am.”

¹⁵ Then the old man said to the prophet, “Come home with me and eat.”

^16-17 “No,” he replied, “I can’t; for I am not allowed to eat anything or to drink any water at Bethel. The Lord strictly warned me against it; and he also told me not to return home by the same road I came on.”

¹⁸ But the old man said, “I am a prophet too, just as you are; and an angel gave me a message from the Lord. I am to take you home with me and give you food and water.”

But the old man was lying to him. ¹⁹ So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man’s home.

²⁰ Then, suddenly, while they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the old man, ^21-22 and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, “The Lord says that because you have been disobedient to his clear command and have come here, and have eaten and drunk water in the place he told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers.”

²³ After finishing the meal, the old man saddled the prophet’s donkey, ^24-25 and the prophet started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Those who came by and saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing quietly beside it, reported it in Bethel where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When he heard what had happened he exclaimed, “It is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord’s command; the Lord fulfilled his warning by causing the lion to kill him.”

²⁷ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey!” And they did.

²⁸ He found the prophet’s body lying in the road; and the donkey and lion were still standing there beside it, for the lion had not eaten the body nor attacked the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet laid the body upon the donkey and took it back to the city to mourn over it and bury it.

³⁰ He laid the body in his own grave, exclaiming, “Alas, my brother!”

³¹ Afterwards he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the prophet is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. ³² For the Lord told him to shout against the altar in Bethel, and his curse against the shrines in the cities of Samaria shall surely be fulfilled.”

³³ Despite the prophet’s warning, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways; instead, he made more priests than ever from the common people, to offer sacrifices to idols in the shrines on the hills. Anyone who wanted to could be a priest. ³⁴ This was a great sin and resulted in the destruction of Jeroboam’s kingdom and the death of all of his family.

14 Jeroboam’s son Abijah now became very sick. ² Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as the queen, and go to Ahijah the prophet at Shiloh—the man who told me that I would become king. ³ Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some fig bars, and a jar of honey, and ask him whether the boy will recover.”

⁴ So his wife went to Ahijah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. ⁵ But the Lord told him that the queen, pretending to be someone else, would come to ask about her son, for he was very sick. And the Lord told him what to tell her.

⁶ So when Ahijah heard her at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have sad news for you. ⁷ Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: ‘I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you king of Israel. ⁸ I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you, but you have not obeyed my commandments as my servant David did. His heart’s desire was always to obey me and to do whatever I wanted him to. ⁹ But you have done more evil than all the other kings before you; you have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have refused to acknowledge me, ¹⁰ I will bring disaster upon your home and will destroy all of your sons—this boy who is sick and all those who are well.^[c] I will sweep away your family as a stable hand shovels out manure. ¹¹ I vow that those of your family who die in the city shall be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field shall be eaten by birds.’”

¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go on home, and when you step into the city, the child will die. ¹³ All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him, but he is the only member of your family who will come to a quiet end. For this child is the only good thing that the Lord God of Israel sees in the entire family of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ And the Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. ¹⁵ Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream; he will uproot the people of Israel from this good land of their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord by worshiping idol-gods. ¹⁶ He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him.”

¹⁷ So Jeroboam’s wife returned to Tirzah; and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home. ¹⁸ And there was mourning for him throughout the land, just as the Lord had predicted through Ahijah.

¹⁹ The rest of Jeroboam’s activities—his wars and the other events of his reign—are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years, and when he died, his son Nadab took the throne.

²¹ Meanwhile, Rehoboam the son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he was on the throne seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which, among all the cities of Israel, the Lord had chosen to live in. (Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.) ²² During his reign the people of Judah, like those in Israel, did wrong and angered the Lord with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors. ²³ They built shrines and obelisks and idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There was homosexuality throughout the land, and the people of Judah became as depraved as the heathen nations which the Lord drove out to make room for his people.

²⁵ In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt attacked and conquered Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ransacked the Temple and the palace and stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ Afterwards Rehoboam made bronze shields as substitutes, and the palace guards used these instead. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple, the guards paraded before him and then took the shields back to the guard chamber.

²⁹ The other events in Rehoboam’s reign are written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰ There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ When Rehoboam died—his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess—he was buried among his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam took the throne.

15 ^1-2 Abijam began his three-year reign as king of Judah in Jerusalem during the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. (Abijam’s mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.) ³ He was as great a sinner as his father was, and his heart was not right with God, as King David’s was. ⁴ But despite Abijam’s sin, the Lord remembered David’s love^[d] and did not end the line of David’s royal descendants. ⁵ For David had obeyed God during his entire life except for the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ During Abijam’s reign there was constant war between Israel and Judah.^{[e] 7} The rest of Abijam’s history is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁸ When he died he was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Asa reigned in his place.

⁹ Asa became king of Judah, in Jerusalem, in the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam over Israel, ¹⁰ and reigned forty-one years. (His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.) ¹¹ He pleased the Lord like his ancestor King David. ¹² He executed the male prostitutes and removed all the idols his father had made. ¹³ He deposed his grandmother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an idol—which he cut down and burned at Kidron Brook. ¹⁴ However, the shrines on the hills were not removed, for Asa did not realize that these were wrong.^{[f] 15} He made permanent exhibits in the Temple of the bronze shields his grandfather had dedicated,^[g] along with the silver and gold vessels he himself had donated.

¹⁶ There was lifelong war between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. ¹⁷ King Baasha built the fortress city of Ramah in an attempt to cut off all trade with Jerusalem. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold left in the Temple treasury and all the treasures of the palace, and gave them to his officials to take to Damascus, to King Ben-hadad of Syria, with this message:

¹⁹ “Let us be allies just as our fathers were. I am sending you a present of gold and silver. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed and sent his armies against some of the cities of Israel; and he destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all of Chinneroth, and all the cities in the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha received word of the attack, he discontinued building the city of Ramah and returned to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, asking every able-bodied man to help demolish Ramah and haul away its stones and timbers. And King Asa used these materials to build the city of Geba in Benjamin and the city of Mizpah.

²³ The rest of Asa’s biography—his conquests and deeds and the names of the cities he built—is found in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. In his old age his feet became diseased, ²⁴ and when he died, he was buried in the royal cemetery in Jerusalem. Then his son Jehoshaphat became the new king of Judah.

²⁵ Meanwhile over in Israel, Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, had become king. He reigned two years, beginning in the second year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. ²⁶ But he was not a good king; like his father, he worshiped many idols and led all of Israel into sin.

²⁷ Then Baasha (the son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar) plotted against him and assassinated him while he was with the Israeli army laying siege to the Philistine city of Gibbethon. ²⁸ So Baasha replaced Nadab as the king of Israel in Tirzah during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. ²⁹ He immediately killed all of the descendants of King Jeroboam, so that not one of the royal family was left, just as the Lord had said would happen when he spoke through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh. ³⁰ This was done because Jeroboam had angered the Lord God of Israel by sinning and leading the rest of Israel into sin.

³¹ Further details of Baasha’s reign are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

^32-33 There was continuous warfare between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel. Baasha reigned for twenty-four years, ³⁴ but all that time he continually disobeyed the Lord. He followed the evil paths of Jeroboam, for he led the people of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.

16 A message of condemnation from the Lord was delivered to King Baasha at this time by the prophet Jehu:

² “I lifted you out of the dust,” the message said, “to make you king of my people Israel; but you have walked in the evil paths of Jeroboam. You have made my people sin, and I am angry! ³ So now I will destroy you and your family, just as I did the descendants of Jeroboam. ^4-7 Those of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds.”

The message was sent to Baasha and his family because he had angered the Lord by all his evil deeds. He was as evil as Jeroboam despite the fact that the Lord had destroyed all of Jeroboam’s descendants for their sins.

The rest of Baasha’s biography—his deeds and conquests—are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

⁸ Elah, Baasha’s son, began reigning during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, but he reigned only two years. ⁹ Then General Zimri, who had charge of half the royal chariot troops, plotted against him. One day King Elah was half drunk at the home of Arza, the superintendent of the palace, in the capital city of Tirzah. ¹⁰ Zimri simply walked in and struck him down and killed him. (This occurred during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.) Then Zimri declared himself to be the new king of Israel.

¹¹ He immediately killed the entire royal family—leaving not a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends. ¹² This destruction of the descendants of Baasha was in line with what the Lord had predicted through the prophet Jehu. ¹³ The tragedy occurred because of the sins of Baasha and his son Elah; for they had led Israel into worshiping idols, and the Lord was very angry about it. ¹⁴ The rest of the history of Elah’s reign is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

^15-16 But Zimri lasted only seven days; for when the army of Israel, which was then engaged in attacking the Philistine city of Gibbethon, heard that Zimri had assassinated the king, they decided on General Omri, commander-in-chief of the army, as their new ruler. ¹⁷ So Omri led the army of Gibbethon to besiege Tirzah, Israel’s capital. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went into the palace and burned it over him and died in the flames. ¹⁹ For he, too, had sinned like Jeroboam; he had worshiped idols and had led the people of Israel to sin with him. ²⁰ The rest of the story of Zimri and his treason are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.

²¹ But now the kingdom of Israel was split in two; half the people were loyal to General Omri, and the other half followed Tibni, the son of Ginath. ²² But General Omri won and Tibni was killed; so Omri reigned without opposition.

²³ King Asa of Judah had been on the throne thirty-one years when Omri began his reign over Israel, which lasted twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. ²⁴ Then Omri bought the hill now known as Samaria from its owner, Shemer, for $4,000 and built a city on it, calling it Samaria in honor of Shemer. ²⁵ But Omri was worse than any of the kings before him; ²⁶ he worshiped idols as Jeroboam had and led Israel into this same sin. So God was very angry. ²⁷ The rest of Omri’s history is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ²⁸ When Omri died he was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab became king in his place.

²⁹ King Asa of Judah had been on the throne thirty-eight years when Ahab became the king of Israel; and Ahab reigned for twenty-two years. ³⁰ But he was even more wicked than his father Omri; he was worse than any other king of Israel! ³¹ And as though that were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and then began worshiping Baal. ³² First he built a temple and an altar for Baal in Samaria. ³³ Then he made other idols and did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than any of the other kings of Israel before him.

³⁴ (It was during his reign that Hiel, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid the foundations, his oldest son, Abiram, died; and when he finally completed it by setting up the gates, his youngest son, Segub, died. For this was the Lord’s curse upon Jericho^[h] as declared by Joshua, the son of Nun.)

17 Then Elijah, the prophet^[i] from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord God of Israel lives—the God whom I worship and serve—there won’t be any dew or rain for several years until I say the word!”

² Then the Lord said to Elijah, ³ “Go to the east and hide by Cherith Brook at a place east of where it enters the Jordan River. ⁴ Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to feed you.”

⁵ So he did as the Lord had told him to and camped beside the brook. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. ⁷ But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.

^8-9 Then the Lord said to him, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions.”

¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the city he saw a widow gathering sticks; and he asked her for a cup of water.

¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread too.”

¹² But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I haven’t a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jar. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I must die of starvation.”

¹³ But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and cook that ‘last meal,’ but bake me a little loaf of bread first; and afterwards there will still be enough food for you and your son. ¹⁴ For the Lord God of Israel says that there will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”

¹⁵ So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil as long as it was needed. ¹⁶ For no matter how much they used, there was always plenty left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah!

¹⁷ But one day the woman’s son became sick and died.

¹⁸ “O man of God,” she cried, “what have you done to me? Have you come here to punish my sins by killing my son?”

¹⁹ “Give him to me,” Elijah replied. And he took the boy’s body from her and carried it upstairs to the guest room where he lived, and laid the body on his bed, ²⁰ and then cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, why have you killed the son of this widow with whom I am staying?”

²¹ And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, please let this child’s spirit return to him.”

²² And the Lord heard Elijah’s prayer; and the spirit of the child returned, and he became alive again! ²³ Then Elijah took him downstairs and gave him to his mother.

“See! He’s alive!” he beamed.

²⁴ “Now I know for sure that you are a prophet,” she told him afterward,^[j] “and that whatever you say is from the Lord!”

18 It was three years later that the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and tell King Ahab that I will soon send rain again!”

² So Elijah went to tell him. Meanwhile the famine had become very severe in Samaria.

^3-4 The man in charge of Ahab’s household affairs was Obadiah, who was a devoted follower of the Lord. Once when Queen Jezebel had tried to kill all of the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had hidden one hundred of them in two caves—fifty in each—and had fed them with bread and water.

⁵ That same day, while Elijah was on the way to see King Ahab,^[k] the king said to Obadiah, “We must check every stream and brook to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules. You go one way and I’ll go the other, and we will search the entire land.”

⁶ So they did, each going alone. ⁷ Suddenly Obadiah saw Elijah coming toward him! Obadiah recognized him at once and fell to the ground before him.

“Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” he asked.

⁸ “Yes, it is,” Elijah replied. “Now go and tell the king I am here.”

⁹ “Oh, sir,” Obadiah protested, “what harm have I done to you that you are sending me to my death? ¹⁰ For I swear by God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you. And each time when he was told ‘Elijah isn’t here,’ King Ahab forced the king of that nation to swear to the truth of his claim. ¹¹ And now you say, ‘Go and tell him Elijah is here’! ¹² But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away, who knows where, and when Ahab comes and can’t find you, he will kill me; yet I have been a true servant of the Lord all my life. ¹³ Has no one told you about the time when Queen Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord’s prophets, and I hid a hundred of them in two caves and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴ And now you say, ‘Go tell the king that Elijah is here’! Sir, if I do that, I’m dead!”

¹⁵ But Elijah said, “I swear by the Lord God of the armies of heaven, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come; and Ahab went out to meet him.

¹⁷ “So it’s you, is it?—the man who brought this disaster upon Israel!” Ahab exclaimed when he saw him.

¹⁸ “You’re talking about yourself,” Elijah answered. “For you and your family have refused to obey the Lord and have worshiped Baal instead. ¹⁹ Now bring all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel, with all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”

²⁰ So Ahab summoned all the people and the prophets to Mount Carmel.

²¹ Then Elijah talked to them. “How long are you going to waver between two opinions?” he asked the people. “If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

²² Then Elijah spoke again. “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left,” he told them, “but Baal has 450 prophets. ²³ Now bring two young bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without putting any fire under the wood; and I will prepare the other young bull and lay it on the wood on the Lord’s altar, with no fire under it. ²⁴ Then pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord; and the god who answers by sending fire to light the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed to this test.

²⁵ Then Elijah turned to the prophets of Baal. “You first,” he said, “for there are many of you; choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call to your god; but don’t put any fire under the wood.”

²⁶ So they prepared one of the young bulls and placed it on the altar; and they called to Baal all morning, shouting, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they began to dance around the altar. ²⁷ About noontime, Elijah began mocking them.

“You’ll have to shout louder than that,” he scoffed, “to catch the attention of your god! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

²⁸ So they shouted louder and, as was their custom, cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. ²⁹ They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no reply, no voice, no answer.

³⁰ Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here.”

And they all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. ³¹ He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel,^{[l] 32} and used the stones to rebuild the Lord’s altar. Then he dug a trench about three feet wide^[m] around the altar. ³³ He piled wood upon the altar and cut the young bull into pieces and laid the pieces on the wood.

“Fill four barrels with water,” he said, “and pour the water over the carcass and the wood.”

After they had done this he said, ³⁴ “Do it again.” And they did.

“Now, do it once more!” And they did; ³⁵ and the water ran off the altar and filled the trench.

³⁶ At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove today that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant; prove that I have done all this at your command. ³⁷ O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

³⁸ Then, suddenly, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even evaporated all the water in the ditch!

³⁹ And when the people saw it, they fell to their faces upon the ground shouting, “Jehovah is God! Jehovah is God!”

⁴⁰ Then Elijah told them to grab the prophets of Baal. “Don’t let a single one escape,” he commanded.

So they seized them all, and Elijah took them to Kishon Brook and killed them there.

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go and enjoy a good meal! For I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!”

⁴² So Ahab prepared a feast. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and got down on his knees, with his face between his knees, ⁴³ and said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”

He did, but returned to Elijah and told him, “I didn’t see anything.”

Then Elijah told him, “Go again, and again, and again, seven times!”

⁴⁴ Finally, the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him to get into his chariot and get down the mountain, or he’ll be stopped by the rain!”

⁴⁵ And sure enough, the sky was soon black with clouds, and a heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm. Ahab left hastily for Jezreel, ⁴⁶ and the Lord gave special strength to Elijah so that he was able to run ahead of Ahab’s chariot to the entrance of the city!

19 When Ahab told Queen Jezebel what Elijah had done, and that he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal, ² she sent this message to Elijah: “You killed my prophets, and now I swear by the gods that I am going to kill you by this time tomorrow night.”

³ So Elijah fled for his life; he went to Beersheba, a city of Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day, and sat down under a broom bush and prayed that he might die.

“I’ve had enough,” he told the Lord. “Take away my life. I’ve got to die sometime, and it might as well be now.”^[n]

⁵ Then he lay down and slept beneath the broom bush. But as he was sleeping, an Angel touched him and told him to get up and eat! ⁶ He looked around and saw some bread baking on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.

⁷ Then the Angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you.”

⁸ So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, ⁹ where he lived in a cave.

But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ He replied, “I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens; but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you and torn down your altars and killed your prophets, and only I am left; and now they are trying to kill me too.”

¹¹ “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain; it was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his scarf and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And a voice said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

¹⁴ He replied again, “I have been working very hard for the Lord God of the armies of heaven, but the people have broken their covenant and have torn down your altars; they have killed every one of your prophets except me; and now they are trying to kill me too.”

¹⁵ Then the Lord told him, “Go back by the desert road to Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king of Syria. ¹⁶ Then anoint Jehu (son of Nimshi) to be king of Israel, and anoint Elisha (the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah) to replace you as my prophet. ¹⁷ Anyone who escapes from Hazael shall be killed by Jehu, and those who escape Jehu shall be killed by Elisha! ¹⁸ And incidentally, there are 7,000 men in Israel who have never bowed to Baal nor kissed him!”

¹⁹ So Elijah went and found Elisha who was plowing a field with eleven other teams ahead of him; he was at the end of the line with the last team. Elijah went over to him and threw his coat across his shoulders and walked away again.^[o]

²⁰ Elisha left the oxen standing there and ran after Elijah and said to him, “First let me go and say good-bye to my father and mother, and then I’ll go with you!”

Elijah replied, “Go on back! Why all the excitement?”

²¹ Elisha then returned to his oxen, killed them, and used wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the other plowmen, and they all had a great feast. Then he went with Elijah, as his assistant.

20 King Ben-hadad of Syria now mobilized his army and, with thirty-two allied nations and their hordes of chariots and horses, besieged Samaria, the Israeli capital. ^2-3 He sent this message into the city to King Ahab of Israel: “Your silver and gold are mine, as are your prettiest wives and the best of your children!”

⁴ “All right, my lord,” Ahab replied. “All that I have is yours!”

^5-6 Soon Ben-hadad’s messengers returned again with another message: “You must not only give me your silver, gold, wives, and children, but about this time tomorrow I will send my men to search your palace and the homes of your people, and they will take away whatever they like!”

⁷ Then Ahab summoned his advisors. “Look what this man is doing,” he complained to them. “He is stirring up trouble despite the fact that I have already told him he could have my wives and children and silver and gold, just as he demanded.”

⁸ “Don’t give him anything more,” the elders advised.

⁹ So he told the messengers from Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘I will give you everything you asked for the first time, but your men may not search the palace and the homes of the people.’”^[p] So the messengers returned to Ben-hadad.

¹⁰ Then the Syrian king sent this message to Ahab: “May the gods do more to me than I am going to do to you if I don’t turn Samaria into handfuls of dust!”

¹¹ The king of Israel retorted, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!”

¹² This reply of Ahab’s reached Ben-hadad and the other kings as they were drinking in their tents.

“Prepare to attack!” Ben-hadad commanded his officers.

¹³ Then a prophet came to see King Ahab and gave him this message from the Lord: “Do you see all these enemy forces? I will deliver them all to you today. Then at last you will know that I am the Lord.”

¹⁴ Ahab asked, “How will he do it?”

And the prophet replied, “The Lord says, ‘By the troops from the provinces.’”

“Shall we attack first?” Ahab asked.

“Yes,” the prophet answered.

¹⁵ So he mustered the troops from the provinces, 232 of them, then the rest of his army of 7,000 men. ¹⁶ About noontime, as Ben-hadad and the thirty-two allied kings were still drinking themselves drunk, the first of Ahab’s troops marched out of the city.

¹⁷ As they approached, Ben-hadad’s scouts reported to him, “Some troops are coming!”

¹⁸ “Take them alive,” Ben-hadad commanded, “whether they have come for truce or for war.”

¹⁹ By now Ahab’s entire army had joined the attack. ²⁰ Each one killed a Syrian soldier, and suddenly the entire Syrian army panicked and fled. The Israelis chased them, but King Ben-hadad and a few others escaped on horses. ²¹ However, the great bulk of the horses and chariots were captured, and most of the Syrian army was killed in a great slaughter.

²² Then the prophet approached King Ahab and said, “Get ready for another attack by the king of Syria.”

²³ For after their defeat, Ben-hadad’s officers said to him, “The Israeli God is a god of the hills; that is why they won. But we can beat them easily on the plains. ²⁴ Only this time replace the kings with generals! ²⁵ Recruit another army like the one you lost; give us the same number of horses, chariots, and men, and we will fight against them in the plains; there’s not a shadow of a doubt that we will beat them.” So King Ben-hadad did as they suggested. ²⁶ The following year he called up the Syrian army and marched out against Israel again, this time at Aphek. ²⁷ Israel then mustered its army, set up supply lines, and moved into the battle; but the Israeli army looked like two little flocks of baby goats in comparison to the vast Syrian forces that filled the countryside!

²⁸ Then a prophet went to the king of Israel with this message from the Lord: “Because the Syrians have declared, ‘The Lord is a God of the hills and not of the plains,’ I will help you defeat this vast army, and you shall know that I am indeed the Lord.”

²⁹ The two armies camped opposite each other for seven days, and on the seventh day the battle began. And the Israelis killed 100,000 Syrian infantrymen that first day. ³⁰ The rest fled behind the walls of Aphek, but the wall fell on them and killed another 27,000. Ben-hadad fled into the city and hid in the inner room of one of the houses.

³¹ “Sir,” his officers said to him, “we have heard that the kings of Israel are very merciful. Let us wear sackcloth and put ropes on our heads and go out to King Ahab to see if he will let you live.”

³² So they went to the king of Israel and begged, “Your servant Ben-hadad pleads, ‘Let me live!’”

“Oh, is he still alive?” the king of Israel asked. “He is my brother!”

³³ The men were quick to grab this straw of hope and hurried to clinch the matter by exclaiming, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad!”

“Go and get him,” the king of Israel told them. And when Ben-hadad arrived, he invited him up into his chariot!

³⁴ Ben-hadad told him, “I will restore the cities my father took from your father, and you may establish trading posts in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”

³⁵ Meanwhile, the Lord instructed one of the prophets to say to another man, “Strike me with your sword!” But the man refused.

³⁶ Then the prophet told him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, a lion shall kill you as soon as you leave me.” And sure enough, as he turned to go a lion attacked and killed him.

³⁷ Then the prophet turned to another man and said, “Strike me with your sword.” And he did, wounding him.

³⁸ The prophet waited for the king beside the road, having placed a bandage over his eyes to disguise himself.

³⁹ As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Sir, I was in the battle, and a man brought me a prisoner and said, ‘Keep this man; if he gets away, you must die, or else pay me $2,000!’ ⁴⁰ But while I was busy doing something else, the prisoner disappeared!”

“Well, it’s your own fault,” the king replied. “You’ll have to pay.”

⁴¹ Then the prophet yanked off the bandage from his eyes, and the king recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² Then the prophet told him, “The Lord says, ‘Because you have spared the man I said must die, now you must die in his place, and your people shall perish instead of his.’”

⁴³ So the king of Israel went home to Samaria angry and sullen.

21 Naboth, a man from Jezreel, had a vineyard on the outskirts of the city near King Ahab’s palace. ² One day the king talked to him about selling him this land.

“I want it for a garden,” the king explained, “because it’s so convenient to the palace.” He offered cash or, if Naboth preferred, a piece of better land in trade.

³ But Naboth replied, “Not on your life! That land has been in my family for generations.”

⁴ So Ahab went back to the palace angry and sullen. He refused to eat and went to bed with his face to the wall!

⁵ “What in the world is the matter?” his wife, Jezebel, asked him. “Why aren’t you eating? What has made you so upset and angry?”

⁶ “I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or to trade it, and he refused!” Ahab told her.

⁷ “Are you the king of Israel or not?” Jezebel demanded. “Get up and eat and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!”

⁸ So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and addressed them to the civic leaders of Jezreel, where Naboth lived. ⁹ In her letter she commanded: “Call the citizens together for fasting and prayer.^[q] Then summon Naboth, ¹⁰ and find two scoundrels who will accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then take him out and execute him.”

¹¹ The city fathers followed the queen’s instructions. ¹² They called the meeting and put Naboth on trial. ¹³ Then two men who had no conscience accused him of cursing God and the king; and he was dragged outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴ The city officials then sent word to Jezebel that Naboth was dead.

¹⁵ When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, “You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn’t sell you? Well, you can have it now! He’s dead!”

¹⁶ So Ahab went down to the vineyard to claim it.

¹⁷ But the Lord said to Elijah, ¹⁸ “Go to Samaria to meet King Ahab. He will be at Naboth’s vineyard, taking possession of it. ¹⁹ Give him this message from me: ‘Isn’t killing Naboth bad enough? Must you rob him too? Because you have done this, dogs shall lick your blood outside the city just as they licked the blood of Naboth!’”

²⁰ “So my enemy has found me!” Ahab exclaimed to Elijah.

“Yes,” Elijah answered, “I have come to place God’s curse upon you because you have sold yourself to the devil.^{[r] 21} The Lord is going to bring great harm to you and sweep you away; he will not let a single one of your male descendants survive! ²² He is going to destroy your family as he did the family of King Jeroboam and the family of King Baasha, for you have made him very angry and have led all of Israel into sin. ²³ The Lord has also told me that the dogs of Jezreel shall tear apart the body of your wife, Jezebel. ²⁴ The members of your family who die in the city shall be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the country shall be eaten by vultures.”

²⁵ No one else was so completely sold out to the devil as Ahab, for his wife, Jezebel, encouraged him to do every sort of evil. ²⁶ He was especially guilty because he worshiped idols just as the Amorites did—the people whom the Lord had chased out of the land to make room for the people of Israel. ²⁷ When Ahab heard these prophecies, he tore his clothing, put on rags, fasted, slept in sackcloth, and went about in deep humility.

²⁸ Then another message came to Elijah: ²⁹ “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime; it will happen to his sons; I will destroy his descendants.”

22 For three years there was no war between Syria and Israel. ² But during the third year, while King Jehoshaphat of Judah was visiting King Ahab of Israel, ³ Ahab said to his officials, “Do you realize that the Syrians are still occupying our city of Ramoth-gilead? And we’re sitting here without doing a thing about it!”

⁴ Then he turned to Jehoshaphat and asked him, “Will you send your army with mine to recover Ramoth-gilead?”

And King Jehoshaphat of Judah replied, “Of course! You and I are brothers; my people are yours to command, and my horses are at your service. ⁵ But,” he added, “we should ask the Lord first, to be sure of what he wants us to do.”

⁶ So King Ahab summoned his 400 heathen prophets^[s] and asked them, “Shall I attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”

And they all said, “Yes, go ahead, for God will help you conquer it.”

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? I’d like to ask him too.”

⁸ “Well, there’s one,” King Ahab replied, “but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good. He always has something gloomy to say. His name is Micaiah, the son of Imlah.”

“Oh, come now!” Jehoshaphat replied. “Don’t talk like that!”

⁹ So King Ahab called to one of his aides, “Go get Micaiah. Hurry!”

¹⁰ Meanwhile, all the prophets continued prophesying before the two kings, who were dressed in their royal robes and were sitting on thrones placed on the threshing floor near the city gate. ¹¹ One of the prophets, Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah), made some iron horns and declared, “The Lord promises that you will push the Syrians around with these horns until they are destroyed.”

¹² And all the others agreed. “Go ahead and attack Ramoth-gilead,” they said, “for the Lord will cause you to triumph!”

¹³ The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him what the other prophets were saying and urged him to say the same thing.

¹⁴ But Micaiah told him, “This I vow, that I will say only what the Lord tells me to!”

¹⁵ When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”

“Why, of course! Go right ahead!” Micaiah told him. “You will have a great victory, for the Lord will cause you to conquer!”

¹⁶ “How many times must I tell you to speak only what the Lord tells you to?” the king demanded.

¹⁷ Then Micaiah told him, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘Their king is dead; send them to their homes.’”

¹⁸ Turning to Jehoshaphat, Ahab complained, “Didn’t I tell you this would happen? He never tells me anything good. It’s always bad.”

¹⁹ Then Micaiah said, “Listen to this further word from the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and the armies of heaven stood around him.

²⁰ “Then the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go and die at Ramoth-gilead?’

“Various suggestions were made, ²¹ until one angel approached the Lord and said, ‘I’ll do it!’

²² “‘How?’ the Lord asked.

“And he replied, ‘I will go as a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’

“And the Lord said, ‘That will do it; you will succeed. Go ahead.’

²³ “Don’t you see? The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets, but the fact of the matter is that the Lord has decreed disaster upon you.”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah) walked over and slapped Micaiah on the face.

“When did the Spirit of the Lord leave me and speak to you?” he demanded.

²⁵ And Micaiah replied, “You will have the answer to your question when you find yourself hiding in an inner room.”

²⁶ Then King Ahab ordered Micaiah’s arrest.

“Take him to Amon, the mayor of the city, and to my son Joash. ²⁷ Tell them, ‘The king says to put this fellow in jail and feed him with bread and water—and only enough to keep him alive^[t]—until I return in peace.’”

²⁸ “If you return in peace,” Micaiah replied, “it will prove that the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he turned to the people standing nearby and said, “Take note of what I’ve said.”

²⁹ So King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah led their armies to Ramoth-gilead.

³⁰ Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “You wear your royal robes, but I’ll not wear mine!”

So Ahab went into the battle disguised in an ordinary soldier’s uniform. ³¹ For the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two chariot captains to fight no one except King Ahab himself. ^32-33 When they saw King Jehoshaphat in his royal robes, they thought, “That’s the man we’re after.” So they wheeled around to attack him. But when Jehoshaphat shouted out to identify himself,^[u] they turned back! ³⁴ However, someone shot an arrow at random and it struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor.

“Take me out of the battle, for I am badly wounded,” he groaned to his chariot driver.

³⁵ The battle became more and more intense as the day wore on, and King Ahab went back in, propped up in his chariot with the blood from his wound running down onto the floorboards. Finally, toward evening, he died. ^36-37 Just as the sun was going down the cry ran through his troops. “It’s all over—return home! The king is dead!”

And his body was taken to Samaria and buried there. ³⁸ When his chariot and armor were washed beside the pool of Samaria, where the prostitutes bathed, dogs came and licked the king’s blood just as the Lord had said would happen.

³⁹ The rest of Ahab’s history—including the story of the ivory palace and the cities he built—is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ⁴⁰ So Ahab was buried among his ancestors, and Ahaziah, his son, became the new king of Israel.

⁴¹ Meanwhile, over in Judah, Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king during the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ He did as his father Asa had done, obeying the Lord in all but one thing: he did not destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people sacrificed and burned incense there. ⁴⁴ He also made peace with Ahab, the king of Israel. ⁴⁵ The rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat and his heroic achievements and his wars are described in The Annals of the Kings of Judah.

⁴⁶ He also closed all the houses of male prostitution that still continued from the days of his father Asa. ⁴⁷ (There was no king in Edom at that time, only a deputy.)

⁴⁸ King Jehoshaphat built great freighters to sail to Ophir for gold; but they never arrived, for they were wrecked at Ezion-geber. ⁴⁹ Ahaziah, King Ahab’s son and successor, had proposed to Jehoshaphat that his men go, too, but Jehoshaphat had refused the offer.

⁵⁰ When King Jehoshaphat died he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of his forefather David; and his son Jehoram took the throne. ⁵¹ It was during the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah that Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, began to reign over Israel in Samaria; and he reigned two years. ^52-53 But he was not a good king, for he followed in the footsteps of his father and mother and of Jeroboam, who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. So Ahaziah made the Lord God of Israel very angry.