War between Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

¹ 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⌟¹ in the cave and sustained them with food and water.)

1. Literally “fifty men”

⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis.¹ Perhaps we may find green grass that we may keep horses and mules alive and that we might not lose any of the animals.”

1. A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season

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⌟,¹ 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.

1. Literally “The life of Yahweh your God”

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⌟¹ in the cave, and I sustained them with food and water.

1. Literally “fifty fifty men”

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⌟,¹ before whom I stand, I will certainly show myself to him today.”

1. Literally “The life of Yahweh of hosts”

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⌟,¹ and he assembled the prophets to Mount Carmel.

1. Literally “sons/children of Israel”

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.”¹ Then all the people answered and said, “The word is good!”

1. Baal is known in Canaanite texts as being the god in control of lightning and fire

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 limped¹ about the altar which they had made.

1. That is, moved about the altar in a cultic dance step

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⌟,¹ or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must wake up!”

1. Literally “has backed off for himself”

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⌟¹ about two seahs of seed, all around the altar.

1. Literally “as the house of”

³³ And he arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces, and placed it on the wood.¹ Then he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”

1. in the Hebrew Bible, 1 Kings 18:34 begins here

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!”