1 Kings 18

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Elijah and Obadiah

¹ After many days the word of Yahweh came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the face of the ground." ² So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. ³ And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly; ⁴ for when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) ⁵ And Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass and keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not lose any of the animals." ⁶ So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷ As Obadiah was on the way, there was Elijah coming to meet him. Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?" ⁸ He answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your lord, 'Elijah is here.'" ⁹ And he said, "What sin have I committed, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab to put me to death? ¹⁰ As Yahweh your Elohim lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they said, 'He is not here,' he made the kingdom and the nation swear that they had not found you. ¹¹ And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Elijah is here."' ¹² And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you I do not know where; and when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have feared Yahweh from my youth. ¹³ Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid a hundred men of the prophets of Yahweh by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴ And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Elijah is here,"' and he will kill me." ¹⁵ And Elijah said, "As Yahweh Tsevaot lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today." ¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Carmel

¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" ¹⁸ And he answered, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have forsaken the commandments of Yahweh and you have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." ²⁰ So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you limp between two opinions? If Yahweh is the Elohim, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word. ²² Then Elijah said to the people, "I, I alone, am left a prophet of Yahweh; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. ²³ Let two bulls be given to us; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, and I will put no fire under it. ²⁴ Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh; and the Elohim who answers by fire, He is the Elohim." And all the people answered and said, "The word is good." ²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." ²⁶ So they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, answer us!" But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made. ²⁷ And at noon Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he has stepped aside, or he is on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened." ²⁸ So they cried out with a loud voice and cut themselves, according to their custom, with swords and spears until the blood gushed out on them. ²⁹ And when midday was past, they raved on until the time of offering the evening offering; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.

Yahweh answers by fire

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Yahweh that had been torn down. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name," ³² and with the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh. And he made a trench around the altar, as great as would hold two measures of seed. ³³ Then he arranged the wood, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. ³⁴ And he said, "Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood." And he said, "Do it a second time," and they did it a second time. And he said, "Do it a third time," and they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water ran around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.

³⁶ And at the time of offering the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, "Yahweh, Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that You are Elohim in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. ³⁷ Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, that this people may know that You, Yahweh, are the Elohim, and that You have turned their heart back again." ³⁸ Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹ When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "Yahweh, He is the Elohim! Yahweh, He is the Elohim!" ⁴⁰ And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape." So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

The drought ends

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of rain." ⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ And he said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." And he said, "Go again," seven times. ⁴⁴ And at the seventh time he said, "See, a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea." And he said, "Go up, say to Ahab, 'Harness your chariot and go down, so that the rain does not stop you.'" ⁴⁵ In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ And the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Notes

• 18:1 "The third year" is counted from Elijah's word that there would be no dew or rain (17:1), or perhaps from his coming to Zarephath (17:9); the text does not say which. Yeshua (Luke 4:25) and James (James 5:17) both speak of "three years and six months" without rain, which fits a drought that had already begun before the third year of Elijah's hiding ended.
• 18:21 "Limp" is posechim, from pasach, "to limp, hobble." "Opinions" is se'ippim, a rare word related to "branches" or "divided thoughts": the picture seems to be of someone hopping from one branch, or one way, to the other without walking straight on either. The same verb returns in verse 26, where the prophets of Baal "limped about the altar," probably a ritual dance. Elijah does not ask the people to add Yahweh to Baal but to choose which one is the Elohim.
• 18:27 Elijah's mockery is sharp. "Deep in thought" and "stepped aside" translate two short Hebrew words, siach and sig; many understand sig, "a turning aside," as a polite way of saying the god had gone off to relieve himself. In the Baal stories known from ancient Ugarit, Baal goes on journeys and even dies and returns to life; Elijah may be turning such beliefs into questions. The Elohim of Israel, by contrast, "neither slumbers nor sleeps" (Psalm 121:4).
• 18:31 The twelve stones speak of all Israel, though the kingdom was now divided between ten tribes in the north and Judah in the south. The words quoted are Elohim's to Jacob at Bethel: "Israel shall be your name" (Genesis 35:10). As Moses had set up "twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel" at the foot of Sinai (Exodus 24:4), Elijah rebuilds an altar for the whole covenant people, calling them back to the Elohim of their father Jacob.
• 18:36 "The evening offering" is literally "the minchah," the grain offering presented with the lamb offered "between the evenings" each day at the tabernacle (Exodus 29:39-41), in the afternoon; the prophets of Baal had raved until that hour (verse 29). Elijah prays at the hour of Israel's appointed sacrifice, and he calls on Yahweh as the Elohim of "Abraham, Isaac and Israel," using Jacob's covenant name, as in verse 31.
• 18:39 The people's cry, Yahweh hu ha-Elohim, answers Elijah's question of verse 21 and the test of verse 24, and it echoes Moses' words, "Yahweh is Elohim; there is no other besides Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35). Elijah's own name, Eliyahu, means "my El is Yah(weh)": the whole story turns his name into Israel's confession.

1 Kings 17 · 1 Kings 19

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