¹And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go and show yourself to Ahab, and I will give rain over the ground.” ²So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. ³And Ahab called for Obadiah who was in charge of the house. And Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. ⁴And it came to pass, when Jezebel cut the Lord's prophets off, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them – fifty men to a cave – and sustained them with food and water. ⁵And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go into the land, to all the sources of water, and to all the brooks. Maybe we will find pasture, and we will be able to revive our horses and mules, and we won't have to cull our cattle.” ⁶Then they divided up the land, so as to cover it. Ahab went by one road on his own, while Obadiah went by another road on his own. ⁷And it came to pass while Obadiah was on the road that, as it happened, Elijah came towards him, and he recognized him, and he fell face down and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” ⁸And he said to him, “I am. Go and say to your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ” ⁹And he said, “In what way have I sinned that you should hand your servant over to Ahab, so as to put me to death? ¹⁰As the Lord your God lives, there is certainly no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent scouts to search for you, and they have said, ‘He is not there.’ And he made the kingdom or the nation swear that they had not found you. ¹¹And now you say, ‘Go and say to your lord, «Behold, Elijah is here.» ’ ¹²And it will come to pass, when I depart from you, while the spirit of the Lord takes you to somewhere I don't know, while I have gone to tell Ahab, and when he doesn't find you, that he will kill me. And your servant has feared the Lord from my youth. ¹³Was it not reported to my lord, what I did when Jezebel killed the Lord's prophets, when I hid one hundred men of the Lord's prophets, in groups of fifty men to a cave, and I sustained them with food and water? ¹⁴Yet now you say, ‘Go and say to your lord, «Behold, Elijah is here» ’, and he will kill me.” ¹⁵Then Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, in whose presence I stand, I will certainly show myself to him today.” ¹⁶Then Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and he told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Are you the one who is causing sorrow to Israel?” ¹⁸And he said, “I have not caused Israel sorrow, but rather you have, and the house of your father, in that you have forsaken the Lord's commandments and have walked after the idols of Baal. ¹⁹So now, send men to gather the whole of Israel to me at Mount Carmel, including Baal's prophets – four hundred and fifty of them – and the prophets of the phallic park – four hundred of them – who eat at Jezebel's table.” ²⁰And Ahab sent men to all the sons of Israel, and he gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. ²¹Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you flit between two positions? If the Lord is God, follow him. And if Baal is, follow him.” And the people didn't answer him anything. ²²Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone have remained a prophet to the Lord, but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty in number. ²³So let them give us two bulls, and they can choose one bull and divide it in pieces and put it on wood, but they will not apply fire, and I will attend to the other bull, and I will put it on the wood, but I will not apply fire. ²⁴And you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and it will be the case that the god who answers with fire is God.” And all the people answered and said, “The proposal is good.” ²⁵Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose the first bull and attend to it first, for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but do not apply fire.” ²⁶So they took the bull which they selected, and they attended to it, and they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us”, but there was no voice and no-one answering. And they leapt over the altar which had been made. ²⁷And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out in a loud voice, for he is a god. Either he is in conversation, or he is in seclusion, he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.” ²⁸So they called out in a loud voice, and they made incisions on themselves according to their custom, with swords and with spears, until they had shed blood over themselves. ²⁹Then it came to pass, when noon had passed, that they prophesied until the time of the meal-offering, but there was no voice, and no-one answering, and no attention paid. ³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been demolished. ³¹And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name will be Israel.” ³²And he fashioned the stones into an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around the altar with the capacity of about two seahs of seed. ³³And he arranged the wood, and he divided the bull in pieces, and he put them on the wood. ³⁴Then he said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it again.” And they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. ³⁵And the water ran around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. ³⁶And it came to pass, when the meal-offering was offered, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that it will be by your words that I will have done all these things. ³⁷Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that it is you who will have turned their heart back.” ³⁸Then the Lord's fire fell down and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water which was in the trench. ³⁹And all the people saw it, and they fell face down and said, “The Lord is God; the Lord is God.” ⁴⁰And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let any of them escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Brook, and he slaughtered them there. ⁴¹And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up and eat and drink, for there is the sound of a large quantity of rain.” ⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the peak of Carmel, and he bent down facing the ground and put his head between his knees. ⁴³And he said to his servant-lad, “Go up now and look in the direction of the sea.” So he went up, and he looked, and he said, “There is nothing there.” Then he said, “Do it again, seven times.” ⁴⁴And it came to pass on the seventh time that he said, “There is a small cloud like a man's palm arising out of the sea.” And he said, “Go up and say to Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot and go down, and may the rain not stop you.’ ” ⁴⁵And it came to pass meanwhile that the sky darkened with clouds, and there was wind, and there was heavy rain. And Ahab was riding, and going to Jezreel. ⁴⁶And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to where one enters Jezreel.