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CHAPTER 18
1 After many days the word of the Lord was made to Elijah, in the third year, and said, Go, and show thee to Ahab, that I give rain upon the face of the earth.
2 Therefore Elijah went to show him-self to Ahab; forsooth a great hunger was made in Samaria.
3 And Ahab called Obadiah, the dispenser, either steward, of his house; forsooth Obadiah dreaded greatly the Lord God of Israel.
4 For when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, he took an hundred prophets, and hid them, by fifties and fifties, in dens, and fed them with bread and water.
5 Then Ahab said to Obadiah, Go thou into the land, to all the wells of waters, and into all valleys, if in hap we may find grass, and save horses and mules; and [the] work beasts perish not utterly.
6 And they parted the countries to themselves, that they should compass those [or them]; Ahab went by one way, and Obadiah went by another way, by himself.
7 And when Obadiah was in the way, Elijah met him; and when he had known Elijah, he felled on his face, and said, Whether thou art my lord Elijah?
8 To whom he answered, I am. And Elijah said, Go thou, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present.
9 And Obadiah said, What have I sinned, for thou betakest me in the hand of Ahab, that he slay me?
10 Thy Lord God liveth, for no folk either realm is, whither my lord, seeking thee, sent not; and when all men answered, He is not here, he charged greatly all realms and folks, for thou were not found;
11 and now thou sayest to me, Go, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present.
12 And when I shall depart from thee, the Spirit of the Lord shall bear thee away into a place which I know not; and I shall enter, and tell to Ahab, and he shall not find thee, and he shall slay thee; forsooth thy servant dreadeth the Lord from his young childhood.
13 Whether it is not showed to thee, my lord, what I did, when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, that I hid of the prophets of the Lord an hundred men, by fifty and fifty, in dens, and I fed them with bread and water?
14 And now thou sayest, Go, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present or is nigh, that he slay me.
15 And Elijah said, The Lord of hosts liveth, before whose sight I stand, for today I shall appear to him.
16 Therefore Obadiah went into the meeting of Ahab, and showed it to him; and Ahab came into the meeting of Elijah.
17 And when he had seen Elijah, he said, Whether thou art he, that troublest Israel?
18 And he said, Not I trouble Israel, but thou, and the house of thy father, which have forsaken the command-ments of the Lord, and pursued [or followed] Baalim.
19 Nevertheless now send thou, and gather to me all Israel, into the hill of Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and [the] four hundred prophets of maumet woods, that eat of the table of Jezebel.
20 Ahab sent to all the sons of Israel, and gathered together the prophets in the hill of Carmel.
21 Forsooth Elijah nighed to all the people of Israel, and said, How long halt ye into two parts? If the Lord is God, pursue ye [or followeth] him; and if Baal is God, pursue ye [or followeth] him. And the people answered not one word to him.
22 And Elijah said again to the people, I dwelled alone a prophet of the Lord; soothly the prophets of Baal be four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the maumet woods be four hundred men.
23 Twain oxes [or two oxen] be given to us; and choose they one ox, and they shall cut it into gobbets, and put it on wood, but put they not fire under; and I shall make ready the tother ox into sacrifice, and I shall put it on the wood, and I shall not put fire under it either.
24 Call ye the name of your gods, and I shall call the name of my God; and the God that heareth by fire falling down, given from heaven to waste the sacrifice, be he God. And all the people answered, and said, The reason is best, that Elijah hath spoken.
25 Therefore Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one ox to you, and make ye ready first your sacrifice, for ye be the more; and call ye the names of your gods, and put ye not fire under.
26 And when they had taken the ox, whom [or that] Elijah gave to them, they made ready the sacrifice, and called the name of Baal, from the morrowtide till to midday, and said, Baal, hear us! And no voice was, neither any that answered; and they skipped over the altar, which they had made.
27 And when it was then midday, Elijah scorned them, and said, Cry ye with [a] greater voice, for Baal is your god, and in hap he speaketh with another, either he is in a harbourgerie, either in the way, either certainly he sleepeth, that he be raised up.
28 Therefore they cried with [a] greater voice, and they cut themselves with knives and lancets, after their custom, till they were beshed with blood.
29 But after that midday passed, and while they prophesied, or prayed, the time came, in which the sacrifice is wont to be offered, neither voice was heard of their gods, neither any answered, neither perceived them praying.
30 [And] Elijah said to all the people, Come ye to me. And when the people came to him, he arrayed the altar of the Lord, that was destroyed.
31 And he took twelve stones, by the number of the lineages of the sons of Jacob, to which Jacob the word of the Lord was made, and said, Israel shall be thy name.
32 And he builded an altar of stones, in the name of the Lord, and he made a leading-to of water, either a ditch, as by two little ditches, or furrows, in the compass of the altar*In Hebrew it is thus, ‘And he made a furrow of three bushels of seed, that is, so much seed as might be sown within the compass of the furrow’, as Rabbi Solomon saith..
33 And he dressed [the] wood, and he parted the ox by its members, and put it upon the wood, and said, Fill ye four pots with water, and pour ye it upon the burnt sacrifice, and upon the wood.
34 And again he said, Also the second time do ye this. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do ye the same thing the third time; and they did it the third time.
35 And the waters ran about the altar, and the ditch, or rut, of [the] leading-to of water was filled.
36 And when the time was then, that the burnt sacrifice should be offered, Elijah the prophet nighed, and said, Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, show thou today that thou art God of Israel, and that I am thy servant, and have done all these words by thy commandment.
37 Lord, hear thou me; Lord, hear thou me; that this people learn, that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast converted again the heart of them.
38 Soothly [the] fire of the Lord felled down then, and devoured the burnt sacrifice, the wood, and the stones, and it licked up also the powder, and the water that was in the leading-to, or the rut, of water.
39 And when all the people had seen this, the people felled into his face, and said, The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.
40 And Elijah said to them, Take ye the prophets of Baal; not one soothly escape of them. And when they had taken them, Elijah led them to the strand [or stream] of Kishon, and killed them there.
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, Go thou up, and eat, and drink, for the sound of much rain is nigh.
42 Ahab went up to eat and drink; but Elijah went up into the top of the hill of Carmel, and he set lowly his face to the earth, betwixt his knees;
43 and said to his servant, Go thou up, and behold thou against the sea. And when he had gone up, and beheld, he said, Nothing is there. And again Elijah said to him, Turn thou again, seven times.
44 And in the seventh time, lo! a little cloud, as the step of a man, went up from the sea. And Elijah said, Go thou up, and say to Ahab, Join thy chariot, and go down, lest the rain before-occupy thee.
45 And when they turned them hither and thither, lo! heavens were made dark, and cloud, and wind, and great rain was made. Therefore Ahab went up into his chariot, and went into Jezreel;
46 and the hand of the Lord was made upon Elijah, and when his loins were girded, he ran before Ahab, till he came into Jezreel.

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*CHAPTER 18:32 In Hebrew it is thus, ‘And he made a furrow of three bushels of seed, that is, so much seed as might be sown within the compass of the furrow’, as Rabbi Solomon saith.

© 2001,2010,2011,2012,2013,2015 Terry Noble