< 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”;
2 and Elijah goes to appear to Ahab. And the famine is severe in Samaria,
3 and Ahab calls to Obadiah, who [is] over the house—and Obadiah has been fearing YHWH greatly,
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—
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.”
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;
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?”
8 And he says to him, “I [am]; go, say to your lord, Behold, Elijah.”
9 And he says, “What have I sinned, that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab—to put me to death?
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;
11 and now, you are saying, Go, say to your lord, Behold, Elijah;
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.
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?
14 And now you are saying, Go, say to my lord, Behold, Elijah—and he has slain me!”
15 And Elijah says, “YHWH of Hosts lives, before whom I have stood, surely I appear to him today.”
16 Obadiah goes to meet Ahab, and declares [it] to him, and Ahab goes 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?”
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;
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.”
20 And Ahab sends among all the sons of Israel, and gathers the prophets to the Mount of 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.
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;
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—
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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;
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.
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;
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”;
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.
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”;
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;
35 and the water goes around the altar, and he has also filled the trench with water.
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;
37 answer me, O YHWH, answer me, and this people [then] knows that You [are] YHWH God; and You have turned their heart backward.”
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.
39 And all the people see, and fall on their faces, and say, “YHWH, He [is] the God! YHWH, He [is] the 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.
41 And Elijah says to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, because of the sound of the noise of the shower.”
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,
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.
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.”
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,
46 and the hand of YHWH has been on Elijah, and he girds up his loins, and runs before Ahab, until your entering Jezreel.
