1 Kings 18
1 And the days are many, and the word of YHWH has been to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, appear to Ahab, and I give rain on the face of the ground”;
So after many days the word of Yahweh came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land.”
2 and Elijah goes to appear to Ahab. And the famine is severe in Samaria,
Elijah went to show himself to Ahab; now the famine was severe in Samaria.
3 and Ahab calls to Obadiah, who [is] over the house—and Obadiah has been fearing YHWH greatly,
Ahab called Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. Now Obadiah honored Yahweh very much,
4 and it comes to pass, in Jezebel’s cutting off the prophets of YHWH, that Obadiah takes one hundred prophets, and hides them, fifty men in a cave, and has sustained them with bread and water—
for when Jezebel was killing the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.
5 and Ahab says to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all fountains of waters, and to all the brooks, perhaps we find hay, and keep alive horse and mule, and do not cut off any of the livestock.”
Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the water springs and brooks. Perhaps we will find grass and save the horses and mules alive, so that we will not lose all the animals.”
6 And they apportion the land to themselves, to pass over into it; Ahab has gone in one way by himself, and Obadiah has gone in another way by himself;
So they divided the land between them to pass through it and look for water. Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way.
7 and Obadiah [is] in the way, and behold, Elijah [is there] to meet him; and he discerns him, and falls on his face and says, “Are you he—my lord Elijah?”
As Obadiah was on the road, Elijah unexpectedly met him. Obadiah recognized him and lay facedown on the ground. He said, “Is it you, my master Elijah?”
8 And he says to him, “I [am]; go, say to your lord, Behold, Elijah.”
Elijah answered him, “It is I. Go tell your master, 'Look, Elijah is here.'”
9 And he says, “What have I sinned, that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab—to put me to death?
Obadiah replied, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, for him to kill me?
10 Your God YHWH lives, if there is a nation and kingdom to where my lord has not sent to seek [for] you; and they said, He is not, then he caused the kingdom and the nation to swear, that it does not find you;
As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent men to find you. Whenever a nation or kingdom says, 'Elijah is not here,' Ahab makes them take an oath swearing that they could not find you.
11 and now, you are saying, Go, say to your lord, Behold, Elijah;
Yet now you say, 'Go, tell your master that Elijah is here.'
12 and it has been, I go from you, and the Spirit of YHWH lifts you up to where I do not know, and I have come to declare to Ahab, and he does not find you, and he has slain me; and your servant is fearing YHWH from my youth.
As soon as I am gone from you, the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you some place I do not know. Then when I go and tell Ahab, and when he cannot find you, he will kill me. Yet I, your servant, have worshiped Yahweh from my youth.
13 Has it not been declared to my lord that which I have done in Jezebel’s slaying the prophets of YHWH, that I hide one hundred men of the prophets of YHWH, fifty by fifty in a cave, and sustained them with bread and water?
Has it not been told to you, my master, what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid one hundred of Yahweh's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water?
14 And now you are saying, Go, say to my lord, Behold, Elijah—and he has slain me!”
Now you say to me, 'Go and tell your master that Elijah is here,' so that he will kill me.”
15 And Elijah says, “YHWH of Hosts lives, before whom I have stood, surely I appear to him today.”
Then Elijah responded, “As Yahweh of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to Ahab today.”
16 Obadiah goes to meet Ahab, and declares [it] to him, and Ahab goes to meet Elijah.
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him what Elijah said. Then the king went to meet Elijah.
17 [And it] comes to pass at Ahab’s seeing Elijah that Ahab says to him, “Are you he—the troubler of Israel?”
When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is it you? You are the one who brings trouble to Israel!”
18 And he says, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and the house of your father, in your forsaking the commands of YHWH, and you go after the Ba‘alim;
Elijah answered, “I have not brought trouble to Israel, but you and your father's family are the ones who have caused trouble by abandoning the commandments of Yahweh and by following the Baals.
19 and now, send, gather all Israel to me, to the Mount of Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Ba‘al, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who are eating at the table of Jezebel.”
Now then, send word and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.”
20 And Ahab sends among all the sons of Israel, and gathers the prophets to the Mount of Carmel;
So Ahab sent word to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.
21 and Elijah comes near to all the people and says, “Until when are you leaping on the two branches? If YHWH [is] God, go after Him; and if Ba‘al, go after him”; and the people have not answered him a word.
Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you keep changing your mind? If Yahweh is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him.” Yet the people did not answer him a word.
22 And Elijah says to the people, “I have been left, by myself, a prophet of YHWH; and the prophets of Ba‘al [are] four hundred and fifty men;
Then Elijah said to the people, “I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.
23 and let them give two bullocks to us, and they choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and place [it] on the wood, and place no fire; and I prepare the other bullock, and have put [it] on the wood, and I do not place fire—
So let them give us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it.
24 and you have called in the name of your god, and I call in the Name of YHWH, and it has been, the god who answers by fire—He [is] the God.” And all the people answer and say, “The word [is] good.”
Then you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh, and the God who answers by fire, then let him be God.” So all the people answered and said, “This is good.”
25 And Elijah says to the prophets of Ba‘al, “Choose one bullock for yourselves, and prepare [it] first, for you [are] the multitude, and call in the name of your god, and place no fire.”
So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many people. Then call on the name of your god, but put no fire under the bull.”
26 And they take the bullock that [one] gave to them, and prepare [it], and call in the name of Ba‘al from the morning even until the noon, saying, “O Ba‘al, answer us!” And there is no voice, and there is none answering; and they leap on the altar that one had made.
They took the bull that was given to them and prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us.” But there was no voice, nor anyone who answered. They danced around the altar they had made.
27 And it comes to pass, at noon, that Elijah mocks at them and says, “Call with a loud voice, for he [is] a god, for he is meditating, or pursuing, or on a journey; it may be he is asleep, and awakes.”
At noon Elijah mocked them and said, “Shout out loudly! He is a god! Perhaps he is thinking, or is relieving himself, or he is traveling on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
28 And they call with a loud voice, and cut themselves, according to their ordinance, with swords and with spears, until a flowing of blood [is] on them;
So they shouted more loudly, and they cut themselves, as they usually did, with swords and spears, until their blood flowed out over themselves.
29 and it comes to pass, at the passing by of the noon, that they feign themselves prophets until the going up of the present, and there is no voice, and there is none answering, and there is none attending.
Midday passed, and they were still raving until the time of offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice or anyone to answer; there was no one who paid any attention to their pleadings.
30 And Elijah says to all the people, “Come near to me”; and all the people come near to him, and he repairs the altar of YHWH that is broken down;
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me,” and all the people came near to him. Then he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was lying in ruin.
31 and Elijah takes twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of YHWH was, saying, “Israel is your name”;
Elijah took twelve stones, each stone representing one of the tribes of the sons of Jacob—it was Jacob to whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, “Israel will be your name.”
32 and he builds an altar with the stones, in the Name of YHWH, and makes a trench, as about the space of two measures of seed, around the altar.
With the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh and he dug a trench around the altar large enough to contain two seahs of seeds.
33 And he arranges the wood, and cuts the bullock in pieces, and places [it] on the wood, and says, “Fill four pitchers of water, and pour [them] on the burnt-offering, and on the wood”;
He arranged the wood for a fire, cut the bull in pieces, and laid the pieces of the bull on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”
34 and he says, “Do [it] a second time”; and they do [it] a second time; and he says, “Do [it] a third time”; and they do [it] a third time;
Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. Once more he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time.
35 and the water goes around the altar, and he has also filled the trench with water.
The water ran around the altar and filled the trench.
36 And it comes to pass, at the going up of the [evening] present, that Elijah the prophet comes near and says, “YHWH, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that You [are] God in Israel, and that I, Your servant, have done the whole of these things by Your word;
It happened at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.
37 answer me, O YHWH, answer me, and this people [then] knows that You [are] YHWH God; and You have turned their heart backward.”
Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that these people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again to yourself.”
38 And a fire falls [from] YHWH, and consumes the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it has licked up the water that [is] in the trench.
Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering, as well as the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And all the people see, and fall on their faces, and say, “YHWH, He [is] the God! YHWH, He [is] the God!”
When all the people saw this, they lay facedown on the ground and said, “Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God!”
40 And Elijah says to them, “Catch the prophets of Ba‘al; do not let a man escape from them”; and they catch them, and Elijah brings them down to the Brook of Kishon, and slaughters them there.
So Elijah said to them, “Take the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape.” So they took them, and Elijah brought the prophets of Baal down to the Kishon River and killed them there.
41 And Elijah says to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, because of the sound of the noise of the shower.”
Elijah said to Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of much rain.”
42 And Ahab goes up to eat, and to drink, and Elijah has gone up to the top of Carmel, and he stretches himself out on the earth, and he places his face between his knees,
So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Then Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.
43 and says to his young man, “Now go up, look attentively [toward] the way of the sea”; and he goes up and looks attentively, and says, “There is nothing”; and he says, “Turn back,” seven times.
He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” His servant went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” So Elijah said, “Go again, seven times.”
44 And it comes to pass, at the seventh, that he says, “Behold, a little thickness as the palm of a man is coming up out of the sea.” And he says, “Go up, say to Ahab, Bind and go down, and the shower does not restrain you.”
At the seventh time the servant said, “Look, there is a cloud going up from the sea, as small as a man's hand.” Elijah replied, “Go up and say to Ahab, 'Make ready your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.'”
45 And it comes to pass, in the meantime, that the heavens have become black—thick clouds and wind—and the shower is great; and Ahab rides, and goes to Jezreel,
It happened that in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode and went to Jezreel,
46 and the hand of YHWH has been on Elijah, and he girds up his loins, and runs before Ahab, until your entering Jezreel.
but the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah. He tucked his robe in his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
