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¹Now the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,

²“Since I exalted you from the dust and made you leader over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have misled My people Israel into sin, provoking Me to anger with their sins,

³behold, I am going to burn Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

⁴Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and anyone belonging to him who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat.”

⁵Now as for the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

⁶And Baasha lay down with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah became king in his place.

⁷Moreover, the word of the LORD through the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came against Baasha and his household, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, by being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck it.

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel at Tirzah, and reigned for two years.

⁹And his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now Elah was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was in charge of the household in Tirzah.

¹⁰Then Zimri came in and struck him and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and he became king in his place.

¹¹And when he became king, as soon as he sat on his throne, he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave a single male alive, either of his relatives or of his friends.

¹²So Zimri eliminated all the household of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke against Baasha through Jehu the prophet,

¹³for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of his son Elah, which they committed and into which they misled Israel, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

¹⁴Now as for the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were camped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.

¹⁶And the people who were camped heard it being said, “Zimri has conspired and has also struck and killed the king!” Therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp.

¹⁷Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.

¹⁸When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over himself with fire, and died,

¹⁹because of his sins which he committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he committed, misleading Israel into sin.

²⁰Now as for the rest of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy which he carried out, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²¹Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; the other half followed Omri.

²²But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. And Tibni died and Omri became king.

²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel and reigned for twelve years; he reigned for six years at Tirzah.

²⁴And he purchased the hill Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and named the city which he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

²⁵Now Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, and acted more wickedly than all who were before him.

²⁶For he walked entirely in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins into which he misled Israel, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

²⁷Now as for the rest of the acts of Omri which he did and his might which he displayed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²⁸And Omri lay down with his fathers and was buried in Samaria; and his son Ahab became king in his place.

²⁹Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years.

³⁰Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him.

³¹And as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.

³²So he erected an altar for Baal at the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.

³³Ahab also made the Asherah. So Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

³⁴In his days Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.”

²Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

³“Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

⁴And it shall be that you will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide food for you there.”

⁵So he went and did everything according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

⁶And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.

⁷But it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

⁹“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for you.”

¹⁰So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.”

¹¹As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

¹²But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have no food, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

¹³However, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said. Just make me a little bread loaf from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

¹⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘The bowl of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil become empty, until the day that the LORD provides rain on the face of the earth.’ ”

¹⁵So she went and did everything in accordance with the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.

¹⁶The bowl of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil become empty, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

¹⁷Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his condition became very grave, until at the end he was no longer breathing.

¹⁸So she said to Elijah, “Why is my business any of yours, you man of God? Yet you have come to me to bring my wrongdoing to remembrance, and to put my son to death!”

¹⁹But he said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her arms and carried him up to the upstairs room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.

²⁰And he called to the LORD and said, “LORD, my God, have You also brought catastrophe upon the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?”

²¹Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times, and called to the LORD and said, “LORD, my God, please, let this boy’s life return to him.”

²²And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the boy returned to him and he revived.

²³Elijah then took the boy and brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”

¹Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will provide rain on the face of the earth.”

²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.

³Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly;

⁴for when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.)

⁵Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the river valleys; perhaps we will find grass and keep the horses and mules alive, and not have to kill some of the cattle.”

⁶So they divided the land between them to survey it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷Now as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, Elijah my master?”

⁸And he said to him, “It is I. Go, say to your master, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ”

⁹But he said, “What sin have I committed, that you are handing your servant over to Ahab, to put me to death?

¹⁰As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my master has not sent word to search for you; and whenever they say, ‘He is not here,’ he makes the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you.

¹¹Yet now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your master, “Behold, Elijah is here!” ’

¹²And it will come about when I leave you that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to where I do not know; so when I come and inform Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, though I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.

¹³Has it not been reported to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, that I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water?

¹⁴Yet now you are saying, ‘Go, say to your master, “Behold, Elijah is here” ’; he will then kill me!”

¹⁵Then Elijah said, “As surely as the LORD of armies lives, before whom I stand, I will certainly present myself to him today.”

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and informed him; then Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, the cause of disaster to Israel?”

¹⁸He said, “I have not brought disaster to Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and you have followed the Baals.

¹⁹Now then, send orders and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

²⁰So Ahab sent orders among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

²¹Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long are you going to struggle with the two choices? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him so much as a word.

²²Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left as a prophet of the LORD, while Baal’s prophets are 450 men.

²³Now have them give us two oxen; and have them choose the one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it.

²⁴Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” And all the people replied, “That is a good idea.”

²⁵So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose the one ox for yourselves and prepare it first, since there are many of you, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under the ox.”

²⁶Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped about the altar which they had made.

²⁷And at noon Elijah ridiculed them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, since he is a god; undoubtedly he is attending to business, or is on the way, or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep, and will awaken.”

²⁸So they cried out with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed out on them.

²⁹When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.

³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come forward to me.” So all the people came forward to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD which had been torn down.

³¹Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”

³²And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed.

³³Then he laid out the wood, and he cut the ox in pieces and placed it on the wood.

³⁴And he said, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time,” so they did it a second time. Then he said, “Do it a third time,” so they did it a third time.

³⁵The water flowed around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.

³⁶Then at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.

³⁷Answer me, LORD, answer me, so that this people may know that You, LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back.”

³⁸Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood, and the stones and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹When all the people saw this, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God!”

⁴⁰Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slaughtered them there.

⁴¹Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.”

⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bent down to the earth and put his face between his knees.

⁴³And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, but he said, “There is nothing.” Yet Elijah said, “Go back” seven times.

⁴⁴And when he returned the seventh time, he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a person’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And Elijah said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot horses and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you.’ ”

⁴⁵Meanwhile the sky became dark with clouds and wind came up, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

⁴⁶Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he belted his cloak around his waist and outran Ahab to Jezreel.