1And it happened after a long time, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go and appear before Ahab, that I may send rain over the land.” 2And Elijah went to appear before Ahab, and the famine was severe in Samaria. 3And Elijah called to Obadiah, who was appointed over the palace, and Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. 4And it had happened, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets, fifty men to a cave, and sustained them with bread and water. 5And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the water-springs and to all the wadis. Perhaps we shall find grass and we can keep horse and mule alive and will not lose all our beasts.” 6And they divided up the land for them to pass through—Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself. 7And it happened, when Obadiah was on the way, that, look, Elijah was coming toward him, and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Are you my lord Elijah?” 8And he said to him, “I am. Go and say to your lord, ‘Elijah is here.’” 9And he said, “How have I offended, that you should place your servant in Ahab’s hands to put me to death? 10As the LORD lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you out, and they said, ‘He is not here,’ and he made the kingdom or nation swear that you were not found. 11And now you say to me, ‘Go, say to your lord, Elijah is here’? 12And so, I shall go away from you, and the LORD’s spirit will bear you off to I know not where, and I shall come to tell Ahab and he won’t find you, and he will kill me. And your servant has feared the LORD from his youth. 13Why, it has been told to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, that I hid a hundred men of the prophets of the LORD, fifty men to a cave, and I sustained them with bread and water. 14And now you say to me, ‘Say to your lord, Elijah is here,’ and he will kill me!” 15And Elijah said, “As the LORD of Armies lives, Whom I have served, today I will appear before him.” 16And Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17And it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that he said to him, “Is it you, troubler of Israel?” 18And he said, “I have not troubled Israel but rather you and your father’s house in your forsaking the LORD’s commands and going after the Baalim. 19And now, send out, gather for me all Israel at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” 20And Ahab sent out among all the Israelites and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21And Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you keep hopping between the two crevices? If it’s the LORD God, go follow Him, and if it’s Baal, go follow him.” And the people answered him not a word. 22And Elijah said to the people, “I alone remain a prophet of the LORD, and the prophets of Baal are four hundred fifty men. 23Let them give us two bulls, and let them choose for themselves one bull and cut it up and put it on the wood, but let them set no fire, and I on my part will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood, but I will set no fire. 24And you shall call in the name of your god, and I on my part will call in the name of the LORD, and it shall be that the god who answers with fire, he is God.” And all the people answered and said, “The thing is good.” 25And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls for yourselves and go first, for you are the many, and call in the name of your god, but set no fire.” 26And they took the bull that he had given them, and they prepared it and called in the name of Baal from morning to noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But, there was no voice and none answering, and they hopped about on the altar that he had made. 27And it happened at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out in a loud voice, for he is a god. Perhaps he is chatting or occupied or off on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and will awake.” 28And they called out in a loud voice and gouged themselves with swords and spears as was their wont till blood spilled upon them. 29And it happened, as the morning passed, that they prophesied until the hour of the afternoon offering, but there was no voice and none answering and none hearing. 30And Elijah said to all the people, “Draw near me.” And all the people drew near him, and he mended the wrecked altar of the LORD. 31And Elijah took twelve stones, like the number of the tribes of Jacob’s sons, to whom the word of the LORD came saying, “Israel shall be your name.” 32And he built with the stones an altar in the name of the LORD and made a trench wide enough for two seahs of seed around the altar. 33And he laid out the wood and cut up the bull and put it on the wood. 34And he said, “Fill four jugs with water and pour it on the 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. 35And the water went round the altar, and the trench, too, was filled with water. 36And it happened at the hour of the afternoon offering that Elijah the prophet approached and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, this day let it be known that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and by Your word have I done all these things. 37Answer me, LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that it is You Who turned their heart backward.” 38And the LORD’s fire came down and consumed the offering and the wood and the dirt, and the water that was in the trench it licked up. 39And all the people saw and fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.” 40And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Let no man of them escape.” And they seized them and Elijah took them down to the Wadi of Kishon and slaughtered them there. 41And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for it is the rumbling sound of rain.” 42And Ahab went up to eat and to drink, while Elijah had gone up to the top of Carmel and stooped to the ground and put his head between his knees. 43And he said to his lad, “Go up, pray, look out to the sea.” And he went up and looked out and said, “There is nothing.” And he said “Go back” seven times. 44And it happened on the seventh time that he said, “Look, a little cloud like a man’s palm is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Harness and come down, and let not the rain hold you back.’” 45And it happened, meanwhile, that the heavens grew dark with clouds, and there was wind, and there was heavy rain. And Ahab rode off and went to Jezreel. 46And the hand of the LORD had come upon Elijah, and he girded his loins and ran before Ahab till you come to Jezreel.
CHAPTER 18 NOTES
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1. in the third year. This is clearly the third year of the drought. Some interpreters think the story is evenly divided in thirds—a year at the Wadi of Cherith, a year in the house of the widow at Zarephath, and a year in which Elijah moves across the country, finally confronting Ahab—but there is no explicit indication of such a division.
3. Obadiah, who was appointed over the palace, and Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. Obadiah’s name means “servant of God,” a role he affirms in the risky business of hiding and sustaining the hundred prophets of the LORD. At the same time, he is a high official in Ahab’s court.
4. a hundred prophets. This large number suggests they are not prophets directly assigned a specific mission by God, like Elijah, but rather members of a kind of guild of prophets, probably figuring as ecstatics, like the prophets in the Saul story, though with the assumption that the ecstasy is inspired by YHWH. Ahab’s swerving from God, then, is seen to have taken a new deadly turn—not only does he foster the worship of Baal but also he takes violent steps to extirpate devotion to YHWH.
6. And they divided up the land for them to pass through. The cause of their separation is the pressing severity of the drought, but it is also important that they be separated—Obadiah would normally have remained in the palace—so that Elijah can speak to him in Ahab’s absence.
7–8. my lord Elijah . . . say to your lord. There is an ironic interplay between this designation of two different men—Elijah, recognized by Obadiah as his lord through the force of his spiritual authority, and Ahab, who is Obadiah’s lord in the political hierarchy as his king.
9. How have I offended. The exchange between Obadiah and Elijah is one of the most spectacular deployments of the biblical technique of contrastive dialogue, in which the two speakers are sharply differentiated by antithesis in tone and attitude and, often, by an opposition between brevity and prolixity (see, for example, Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39). Elijah expresses a concise imperative, “Go and say to your lord, ‘Elijah is here,’” and then the steely resolution at the end of the dialogue, “As the LORD of Armies lives, Whom I have served, today I will appear before him.” Obadiah, on the other hand, terrified by the prospect of conveying this message to Ahab, spouts a stream of highly nervous volubility, anxiously repeating twice what he regards as Elijah’s impossible order to him and at the same time defending his own record as a God-fearing man. The effect is almost comical: he is a good man and has incurred danger in his loyalty to the LORD, but he is also an ordinary man, susceptible to fear. The contrast to the iron-willed Elijah is striking. At the same time, Obadiah’s terror vividly reflects Ahab’s ruthlessness as a paganizing monarch.
12. the LORD’s spirit will bear you off to I know not where. For nearly three years, Elijah has proven to be a successfully elusive fugitive from Ahab’s wrath, and so Obadiah feels it is safe to assume that the prophet will continue on this path.
19. And now, send out, gather . . . all Israel at Mount Carmel. Ahab may be willing to accept this challenge instead of having Elijah killed on the spot because it presents itself as the opportunity for a grand public triumph. Nine hundred pagan prophets will surely overwhelm one prophet of the LORD in any contest, and even the place of confrontation is favorable to the pagan cause, Mount Carmel near the northern coast and close to the border of Lebanon being in proximity to the Phoenician sphere and a place where an altar of YHWH lies in ruins, presumably replaced by Baal worship. The king’s calculation is probably first to humiliate Elijah before the assembled people and then to kill him.
21. How long will you keep hopping between the two crevices? This is obviously an idiom that means trying to have it both ways. The Hebrew noun has three different meanings: seʿif can be a “thought” (hence “opinions” in the King James Version), a “branch,” or a “crevice.” This translation assumes that the idiom invokes a concrete image, and opts for “crevices” because of the physical evocation of a person awkwardly jumping between two cracks in a rock.
22. I alone remain a prophet of the LORD. The 100 prophets hidden in caves, who have no mission and are not standing on Mount Carmel confronting the 450 prophets of Baal, would not count.
four hundred fifty men. The 450 prophets of the goddess Asherah appear to be out of the picture.
25. Choose one of the bulls for yourselves. He creates the impression of giving them the advantage of, one might say, serving first.
26. the bull that he had given them. That is, he offered two bulls and allowed them to choose.
they hopped about on the altar. The verb here satirically picks up the “hopping between the two crevices” in verse 21.
27. Perhaps he is chatting. Though both the Prophets and Psalms denounce idols as having ears and mouth but without the capacity for hearing or speech, Elijah turns this notion into biting sarcasm in dialogue.
28. gouged themselves. This is an attested pagan cultic practice, prohibited in the Torah, and is either a gesture of self-immolation or an act of sympathetic magic (blood spurting to stimulate fire springing out from the wood).
29. prophesied. The reflexive conjugation of the verb associated with prophecy that is used here means to fling oneself into a state of ecstasy or frenzy.
none hearing. Literally, “no hearing.”
34. Fill four jugs with water. Pouring water over the wood and the sacrificial animal magnifies the miraculous nature of the appearance of fire that is about to occur. Elijah, together with his gift of rhetoric and satire, is a grand stage manager at this event.
36. at the hour of the afternoon offering. This would be late afternoon.
approached. This is the same verb as “draw near” in verse 30 but here has the technical sense of approaching a sacred zone.
37. it is You Who turned their heart backward. The clause is ambiguous. It could mean, given the narrative context: it is You Who made them again realize that YHWH alone is God. But “backward,” aḥoranit, often has a negative connotation, so the clause could mean: it was You Who allowed them to fall back into idolatry, for God causes all things.
39. The LORD, He is God. This awestruck proclamation of faith has, appropriately, been introduced into the Yom Kippur liturgy at the very end of the concluding service.
40. Elijah . . . slaughtered them there. The verb used is singular, so the slaughterer is Elijah. There are other verbs for killing—this particular verb is generally used for animals. Elijah is as ruthless in his zealotry for YHWH as Ahab in his pagan despotism.
41. Go up, eat and drink. Feasting is in order because the drought is about to come to an end.
42. stooped. Usually the verb gahar means to stretch out, but he could scarcely be stretched out if his head is between his knees.
44. Harness and come down. Ahab has “gone up” to eat and drink, perhaps somewhere on the slopes of Mount Carmel. Now he will descend by chariot into the Valley of Jezreel.
46. he girded his loins and ran before Ahab till you come to Jezreel. Some interpret Elijah’s running ahead of Ahab’s chariot as a gesture of alliance with the king. More probably, he is again demonstrating a power superior to the king’s: filled with the divine afflatus, he sprints ahead of the king’s chariot all the way to Jezreel, outstripping the galloping horses.