1 Kings 18:1 The Lord said to Elijah in the third year of no rain, Go meet with King Ahab, and tell him I the LORD will make it rain again.
1 Kings 18:2 Elijah went to meet King Ahab. Because of no rain for 3 years there was a famine in Samaria.
1 Kings 18:3 So King Ahab told Obadiah to come to him. Obadiah was the man in charge of the king’s palace. (Obadiah was a true follower of the Lord.
1 Kings 18:4 When Jezebel killed the prophets of God, Obadiah hid 100 prophets in 2 caves, 50 prophets in each cave, and he gave them food and water.
1 Kings 18: King Ahab said to Obadiah, Come with me. We will look at every spring and every stream in the land. We will see if we can find enough grass to keep our horses and mules alive.
1 Kings 18:6 Ahab and Obadiah divided the land and Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.
1 Kings 18:7 On his way Obadiah met Elijah and when Obadiah saw it was Elijah, he bowed down with his face to the ground and he asked: Elijah, is that really you?
1 Kings 18:8 Elijah answered Obadiah and said: Yes, it is I. Go and tell your king that I am here.
1 Kings 18:9 Obadiah asked: What sin have I done? Why do you want King Ahab to kill me?
1 Kings 18:10 Obadiah said, I promise by the LORD your God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you. And each time he was told, Elijah isn’t here, King Ahab made the king of that nation to promise to the truth of his claim. That you were not there in their country
1 Kings 18:11 And now you say: Go and tell your king that Elijah is here.
1 Kings 18:12 If I go away from you now, and the Spirit of God takes you away to another place and I do not know where you are, what will happen to me? If I tell Ahab you are here, and you are not here when he comes, he will kill me. You must know that I have served the Lord from the time I was young.
1 Kings 18:13 Did you not heard what I did when Jezebel started to kill the prophets of the Lord? I hid 50 prophets in one cave and 50 prophets in another cave and I gave them food and water.
1 Kings 18:14 And now you say I must go to my king and tell him that Elijah is here. Do you want him to kill me?’
1 Kings 18:15 Elijah said to Obadiah: As sure as the Lord lives, in whose presence I stand, Obadiah don’t have to worry. Ahab will see me today.
1 Kings 18:16 Obadiah went to Ahab and he told him, and Ahab came to meet Elijah.
1 Kings 18:17 When the king saw Elijah, he said: Elijah Is that you, the one who brings trouble and death to Israel?
1 Kings 18:18 Elijah said to Ahab: It is not I who bring trouble and death to Israel. It is you and your family who did it when you stopped listening to the laws of God and when you started to serve the Baal idols.
1 Kings 18:19 Now tell all the people of Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Also bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table must also come
1 Kings 18:20 King Ahab sent messengers to all the children of Israel, and he told those prophets to come to Mount Carmel.
1 Kings 18:21 Elijah came and stood in front of all the people and Elijah asked them: How long will you keep jumping from one decision to serve God to the other decision to serve Baal. If the Lord is God, then you must serve Him. Or, if Baal is god, then you must serve him. But the people did not answer him. They kept quiet.
1 Kings 18:22 Then Elijah said to the people: ‘I am the only prophet of God that is still here, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.
1 Kings 18:23 Bring us 2 bulls. The prophets of Baal must choose one bull. They must cut the bull into pieces and put it on the wood on the altar, but they must not make fire on the altar. I will do the same with the other bull. I will put it on the wood, and I will not make fire on the altar.
1 Kings 18:24 Prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord. Whichever god answers the prayer and starts the fire is the true God. All the people agreed that this was a good idea.
1 Kings 18:25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal: You can choose one bull and prepare it first, because there are many of you. You must pray to your god, but you must not start a fire on your altar.
1 Kings 18:26 The prophets of Baal took the bull that Elijah gave them, they prepared it and they prayed to Baal. They kept on praying from morning to noon and asked: Baal, help us. But nothing happened, and no one answered. The prophets of Baal started jumping around on the altar they had built.
1 Kings 18:27 At noon Elijah began to make fun of them. He said, If Baal really is a god, maybe you should pray louder! Maybe he is busy. Maybe he is thinking about something, or maybe he stepped out for a moment! He could be sleeping! Maybe you should pray louder and wake him up!
1 Kings 18:28 So the prophets prayed louder. They cut themselves with swords and spears. (This was the way they worshiped.) They cut themselves until they were bleeding all over
1 Kings 18:29 The afternoon went by, and they continued praying until that evening, but nothing happened. No one answered them and Baal did not listen to them. Now it is time that the priest always sacrificed the evening offering,
1 Kings 18:30 Elijah said to all the people: Come here. Come to me. They came and Elijah built the altar of the Lord again. It was the altar that had been broken.
1 Kings 18:31 He took 12 stones, one stone for each tribe, the descendants of the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had said: Your name will be Israel.
1 Kings 18:32 Elijah built the stones into the altar of the Lord, then he dug a ditch around the altar. The ditch was so deep that 2 measure of seeds could go into it (around 4 gallons of water)
1 Kings 18:33 Then he put the wood on the altar, and he cut the bull into pieces and put it on top of the wood. Then Elijah said: You must fill 4 barrels of water and pour it over the offering and over the wood
1 Kings 18:34 Elijah told them to do it again, and he said unto them again do it a 3rd time.
1 Kings 18:35 The water ran down the altar and it filled the ditch.
1 Kings 18:36 Late that afternoon when it was time for the evening-offering, the prophet Elijah stood next to the altar and he said: Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let everyone see today that You are the God in Israel. Let everyone see that I am your servant and that it is You who have told me to do all these things.
1 Kings 18:37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that all these people will know that You, Lord, are God and that it is You who change them and turn their hearts back to You.
1 Kings 18:38 The Lord then sent fire down and the fire burnt the offering and the wood and the stones and the ground and everything. There was no more water in the ditch, and the ditch was dry.
1 Kings 18:39 When the people saw this, they all bowed down with their faces to the ground. They said: The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.
1 Kings 18:40 Elijah said to them: Catch the prophets of Baal. Not one of them must escape. They caught the prophets and Elijah took them to the Kishon River and he killed them there.
1 Kings 18:41 Then Elijah said to Ahab: Go, eat and drink because I can see a lot of rain coming.
1 Kings 18:42 Ahab went home to eat, and Elijah went to Mount Carmel. There he bowed down to the ground and he put his head between his knees.
1 Kings 18:43 He told the young man with him: Go up the mountain and look at the sea. The young man went up higher and he looked and said: I see nothing. When he came back Elijah told the young man to go and look again. He did this 7 times.
1 Kings 18:44 When the young man went for the 7th time, he came back and said: There is a small cloud coming from the sea. The cloud is as big as my hand. Then Elijah said: Go and tell Ahab he must get his horses and chariot ready and go, because later the rain will stop him, and he will not get away.
1 Kings 18:45 While Elijah was saying that, the sky became dark with black clouds. There were strong winds and a lot of rain. Ahab got into his chariot, and he went to the town of Jezreel.
1 Kings 18:46 The power of the Lord came to Elijah. He used his belt to hold up the bottom of his robe away from his feet. Then he ran ahead of King Ahab all the way to Jezreel.