Elijah and the Drought

¹A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so.”

²Then the Lord said to Elijah,

³“Leave this place and go east and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan.

⁴The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there.”

⁵Elijah obeyed the Lord's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook.

⁶He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening.

⁷After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.

Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath

⁸Then the Lord said to Elijah,

⁹“Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you.”

¹⁰So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the town gate, he saw a widow gathering firewood. “Please bring me a drink of water,” he said to her.

¹¹And as she was going to get it, he called out, “And please bring me some bread, too.”

¹²She answered, “By the living Lord your God I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a bit of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death.”

¹³“Don't worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go on and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son.

¹⁴For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.’”

¹⁵The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days.

¹⁶As the Lord had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.

¹⁷Some time later the widow's son got sick; he got worse and worse, and finally he died.

¹⁸She said to Elijah, “Man of God, why did you do this to me? Did you come here to remind God of my sins and so cause my son's death?”

¹⁹“Give the boy to me,” Elijah said. He took the boy from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid him on the bed.

²⁰Then he prayed aloud, “O Lord my God, why have you done such a terrible thing to this widow? She has been kind enough to take care of me, and now you kill her son!”

²¹Then Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times and prayed, “O Lord my God, restore this child to life!”

²²The Lord answered Elijah's prayer; the child started breathing again and revived.

²³Elijah took the boy back downstairs to his mother and said to her, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴She answered, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Lord really speaks through you!”

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

¹After some time, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab, and I will send rain.”

²So Elijah started out. The famine in Samaria was at its worst,

³so Ahab called in Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devout worshiper of the Lord,

⁴and when Jezebel was killing the Lord's prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them, hid them in caves in two groups of fifty, and provided them with food and water.)

⁵Ahab said to Obadiah, “Let us go and look at every spring and every stream bed in the land to see if we can find enough grass to keep the horses and mules alive. Maybe we won't have to kill any of our animals.”

⁶They agreed on which part of the land each one would explore, and set off in different directions.

⁷As Obadiah was on his way, he suddenly met Elijah. He recognized him, bowed low before him, and asked, “Is it really you, sir?”

⁸“Yes, I'm Elijah,” he answered. “Go and tell your master the king that I am here.”

⁹Obadiah answered, “What have I done that you want to put me in danger of being killed by King Ahab?

¹⁰By the living Lord, your God, I swear that the king has made a search for you in every country in the world. Whenever the ruler of a country reported that you were not in his country, Ahab would require that ruler to swear that you could not be found.

¹¹And now you want me to go and tell him that you are here?

¹²What if the spirit of the Lord carries you off to some unknown place as soon as I leave? Then, when I tell Ahab that you are here and he can't find you, he will put me to death. Remember that I have been a devout worshiper of the Lord ever since I was a boy.

¹³Haven't you heard that when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord I hid a hundred of them in caves, in two groups of fifty, and supplied them with food and water?

¹⁴So how can you order me to go and tell the king that you are here? He will kill me!”

¹⁵Elijah answered, “By the living Lord Almighty, whom I serve, I promise that I will present myself to the king today.”

¹⁶So Obadiah went to King Ahab and told him, and Ahab set off to meet Elijah.

¹⁷When Ahab saw him, he said, “So there you are—the worst troublemaker in Israel!”

¹⁸“I'm not the troublemaker,” Elijah answered. “You are—you and your father. You are disobeying the Lord's commands and worshiping the idols of Baal.

¹⁹Now order all the people of Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Bring along the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah who are supported by Queen Jezebel.”

²⁰So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and the prophets of Baal to meet at Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah went up to the people and said, “How much longer will it take you to make up your minds? If the Lord is God, worship him; but if Baal is God, worship him!” But the people didn't say a word.

²²Then Elijah said, “I am the only prophet of the Lord still left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.

²³Bring two bulls; let the prophets of Baal take one, kill it, cut it in pieces, and put it on the wood—but don't light the fire. I will do the same with the other bull.

²⁴Then let the prophets of Baal pray to their god, and I will pray to the Lord, and the one who answers by sending fire—he is God.” The people shouted their approval.

²⁵Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since there are so many of you, you take a bull and prepare it first. Pray to your god, but don't set fire to the wood.”

²⁶They took the bull that was brought to them, prepared it, and prayed to Baal until noon. They shouted, “Answer us, Baal!” and kept dancing around the altar they had built. But no answer came.

²⁷At noon Elijah started making fun of them: “Pray louder! He is a god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps he's gone off on a trip! Or maybe he's sleeping, and you've got to wake him up!”

²⁸So the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers, according to their ritual, until blood flowed.

²⁹They kept on ranting and raving until the middle of the afternoon; but no answer came, not a sound was heard.

³⁰Then Elijah said to the people, “Come closer to me,” and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.

³¹He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel.

³²With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. He dug a trench around it, large enough to hold about four gallons of water.

³³Then he placed the wood on the altar, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood.” They did so,

³⁴and he said, “Do it again”—and they did. “Do it once more,” he said—and they did.

³⁵The water ran down around the altar and filled the trench.

³⁶At the hour of the afternoon sacrifice the prophet Elijah approached the altar and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove now that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant and have done all this at your command.

³⁷Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God and that you are bringing them back to yourself.”

³⁸The Lord sent fire down, and it burned up the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones, scorched the earth and dried up the water in the trench.

³⁹When the people saw this, they threw themselves on the ground and exclaimed, “The Lord is God; the Lord alone is God!”

⁴⁰Elijah ordered, “Seize the prophets of Baal; don't let any of them get away!” The people seized them all, and Elijah led them down to Kishon Brook and killed them.

The End of the Drought

⁴¹Then Elijah said to King Ahab, “Now, go and eat. I hear the roar of rain approaching.”

⁴²While Ahab went to eat, Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bowed down to the ground, with his head between his knees.

⁴³He said to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea.” The servant went and returned, saying, “I didn't see a thing.” Seven times in all Elijah told him to go and look.

⁴⁴The seventh time he returned and said, “I saw a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand, coming up from the sea.” Elijah ordered his servant, “Go to King Ahab and tell him to get in his chariot and go back home before the rain stops him.”

⁴⁵In a little while the sky was covered with dark clouds, the wind began to blow, and a heavy rain began to fall. Ahab got in his chariot and started back to Jezreel.

⁴⁶The power of the Lord came on Elijah; he fastened his clothes tight around his waist and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

The Prophet Micaiah Warns Ahab

¹When King Jehoshaphat of Judah became rich and famous, he arranged a marriage between a member of his family and the family of King Ahab of Israel.

²A number of years later Jehoshaphat went to the city of Samaria to visit Ahab. To honor Jehoshaphat and those with him, Ahab had a large number of sheep and cattle slaughtered for a feast. He tried to persuade Jehoshaphat to join him in attacking the city of Ramoth in Gilead.

³He asked, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?” Jehoshaphat replied, “I am ready when you are, and so is my army. We will join you.”

⁴Then he added, “But first let's consult the Lord.”

⁵So Ahab called in the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?” “Attack it,” they answered. “God will give you victory.”

⁶But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the Lord?”

⁷Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad.” “You shouldn't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁸So King Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and get Micaiah at once.

⁹The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them.

¹⁰One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the Lord says, ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’”

¹¹All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The Lord will give you victory.”

¹²Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”

¹³But Micaiah answered, “By the living Lord I will say what my God tells me to!”

¹⁴When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?” “Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you'll win. The Lord will give you victory.”

¹⁵But Ahab replied, “When you speak to me in the name of the Lord, tell the truth! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

¹⁶Micaiah answered, “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace.’”

¹⁷Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you that he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad!”

¹⁸Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him.

¹⁹The Lord asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and get killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else,

²⁰until a spirit stepped forward, approached the Lord, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked.

²¹The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.’ The Lord said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’”

²²And Micaiah concluded: “This is what has happened. The Lord has made these prophets of yours lie to you. But he himself has decreed that you will meet with disaster!”

²³Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the Lord's spirit leave me and speak to you?”

²⁴“You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.

²⁵Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers, “Arrest Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Prince Joash.

²⁶Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely.”

²⁷“If you return safely,” Micaiah exclaimed, “then the Lord has not spoken through me!” And he added, “Listen, everyone, to what I have said!”

The Death of Ahab

²⁸Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead.

²⁹Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.

³⁰The king of Syria had ordered his chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel.

³¹So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But Jehoshaphat gave a shout, and the Lord God rescued him and turned the attack away from him.

³²The chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, so they stopped pursuing him.

³³By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor. “I'm wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn around and pull out of the battle!”

³⁴While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. At sunset he died.

A Prophet Reprimands Jehoshaphat

¹King Jehoshaphat of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem.

²A prophet, Jehu son of Hanani, went to meet the king and said to him, “Do you think it is right to help those who are wicked and to take the side of those who hate the Lord? What you have done has brought the Lord's anger on you.

³But even so, there is some good in you. You have removed all the symbols of the goddess Asherah which people worshiped, and you have tried to follow God's will.”

Jehoshaphat's Reforms

⁴Even though King Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, he traveled regularly among the people, from Beersheba in the south to the edge of the hill country of Ephraim in the north, in order to call the people back to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

⁵He appointed judges in each of the fortified cities of Judah

⁶and instructed them: “Be careful in pronouncing judgment; you are not acting on human authority, but on the authority of the Lord, and he is with you when you pass sentence.

⁷Honor the Lord and act carefully, because the Lord our God does not tolerate fraud or partiality or the taking of bribes.”

⁸In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed Levites, priests, and some of the leading citizens as judges in cases involving a violation of the Law of the Lord or legal disputes between inhabitants of the city.

⁹He gave them the following instructions: “You must perform your duties in reverence for the Lord, faithfully obeying him in everything you do.

¹⁰Whenever your fellow citizens from any of the cities bring before you a case of homicide or any other violation of a law or commandment, you must instruct them carefully how to conduct themselves during the trial, so that they do not become guilty of sinning against the Lord. Unless you do, you and your fellow citizens will feel the force of the Lord's anger. But if you do your duty, you will not be guilty.

¹¹Amariah the High Priest will have final authority in all religious cases, and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, governor of Judah, will have final authority in all civil cases. The Levites have the responsibility of seeing that the decisions of the courts are carried out. Be courageous and carry out these instructions, and may the Lord be on the side of the right!”

The Women

¹I have entered my garden, my sweetheart, my bride. I am gathering my spices and myrrh; I am eating my honey and honeycomb; I am drinking my wine and milk. Eat, lovers, and drink until you are drunk with love!

The Man

²While I slept, my heart was awake. I dreamed my lover knocked at the door. Let me come in, my darling, my sweetheart, my dove. My head is wet with dew, and my hair is damp from the mist.

The Woman

³I have already undressed; why should I get dressed again? I have washed my feet; why should I get them dirty again?

⁴My lover put his hand to the door, and I was thrilled that he was near.

⁵I was ready to let him come in. My hands were covered with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, as I grasped the handle of the door.

⁶I opened the door for my lover, but he had already gone. How I wanted to hear his voice! I looked for him, but couldn't find him; I called to him, but heard no answer.

⁷The sentries patrolling the city found me; they struck me and bruised me; the guards at the city wall tore off my cape.

⁸Promise me, women of Jerusalem, that if you find my lover, you will tell him I am weak from passion.

The Women

⁹Most beautiful of women, is your lover different from everyone else? What is there so wonderful about him that we should give you our promise?

The Woman

¹⁰My lover is handsome and strong; he is one in ten thousand.

¹¹His face is bronzed and smooth; his hair is wavy, black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are as beautiful as doves by a flowing brook, doves washed in milk and standing by the stream.

¹³His cheeks are as lovely as a garden that is full of herbs and spices. His lips are like lilies, wet with liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His hands are well-formed, and he wears rings set with gems. His body is like smooth ivory, with sapphires set in it.

¹⁵His thighs are columns of alabaster set in sockets of gold. He is majestic, like the Lebanon Mountains with their towering cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is sweet to kiss; everything about him enchants me. This is what my lover is like, women of Jerusalem.