1 Kings 18 And after many days, a word of the Lord came to Elias in the third year, saying, Go and shew thyself to Achab and I will send rain on the face of the land.

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ And after many days, a word of the Lord came to Elias in the third year, saying, Go and shew thyself to Achab and I will send rain on the face of the land. ² Now when Elias went to shew himself to Achab there was a grievous famine in Samaria. ³ And Achab had called his steward Abdiou. This Abdiou feared the Lord greatly; ⁴ so that when Jezabel smote the prophets of the Lord, Abdiou took a hundred men who were prophets, and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. ⁵ And Achab said to Abdiou, Come and let us go through the land to the fountains of water and to the brooks, perhaps we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that they may not be utterly destroyed from our habitations. ⁶ So they divided the way between them, that they might traverse the country. Achab went one way, and Abdiou went by himself another way. ⁷ And as Abdiou was in the way by himself Elias came by himself to meet him. Whereupon Abdiou hasted and fell on his face and said, Art thou he, my lord Elias? ⁸ And Elias said, I am, Go and tell thy master, Behold Elias is here. ⁹ And Abdiou said, In what have I sinned that thou shouldst deliver thy servant into the hand of Achab, that he may put me to death? ¹⁰ As the Lord thy God liveth, there is not a nation or a kingdom to which my master hath not sent to seek thee. And if they said, He is not here, he burned the kingdom or its borders, because he did not find thee. ¹¹ And now thou sayst, Go tell thy master, Behold Elias is here. ¹² But it may be, that when I am gone from thee, the Spirit of the Lord will carry thee away to a land which I know not. So that when I shall go and tell Achab, and he shall not find thee, he will kill me. Now thy servant is one who feareth the Lord from his youth. ¹³ Hath it not been told thee, my lord, what I did when Jezabel slew the prophets of the Lord; how I hid a hundred men of the prophets of the Lord by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴ Yet, now thou sayst, Go, tell thy master, Behold Elias is here, that he may kill me. ¹⁵ And Elias said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will this day shew myself to him. ¹⁶ Then Abdiou went to meet Achab, and when he told him, Achab hasted and came to meet Elias. ¹⁷ And when Achab saw Elias, he said to him, Art thou he, the troubler of Israel? ¹⁸ To which Elias replied, I am not the troubler of Israel; but thou and thy father's house are, by your forsaking the Lord your God and going after the Baalims. ¹⁹ Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of shame, four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the bowers four hundred, who eat at Jezebel's table. ²⁰ And when Achab had sent to all Israel, and had assembled all the prophets at mount Carmel, Elias came near before them all, and Elias said ²¹ to them, How long will you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him: but if Baal; follow him. But the people made no reply. ²² Then Elias said to the people, I am left a prophet of the Lord myself alone. But the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men, and the prophets of the Bower four hundred. ²³ Let there be given to us two young bulls, and let them chuse one for themselves, and cut him in pieces, and lay them on wood, but put no fire; and I will prepare the other and put no fire. ²⁴ And call ye on the name! of your gods, and I will invoke the name of the Lord my God. And the God who shall answer by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, The proposal thou hast made is fair. ²⁵ Then Elias said to the prophets of shame, Chuse for yourselves one young bull and prepare it first; for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it. ²⁶ So they took the young bull, and prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning till noon, and said, Hearken to us, Baal! Hearken to us. But there was no voice. There was no answer; though they ran upon the altar which they had erected. ²⁷ And when it was noon, Elias the Thesbite mocked them, and said, Call louder; for he is a god; for he is engaged in meditation, or perhaps he is busy, or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked. ²⁸ Then they called with a loud voice, and according to their custom cut themselves with knives and lancets till there was a gush of blood upon them, ²⁹ and prophesied till the approach of the evening. But when it was about the time when the sacrifice should ascend, Elias the Thesbite spoke to the prophets of the idols, and said, Desist now, and I will prepare my whole burnt offering. So they desisted, and went away. ³⁰ Then Elias said to the people, Draw near to me. And when all the people came near before him, ³¹ Elias took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of Israel, to whom the Lord had spoken, saying, Thy name shall be Israel; ³² and he built the stones in the name of the Lord, and repaired the altar which had been thrown down. Then he made a trench around the altar sufficient to contain two measures of seed, ³³ and piled up the split wood upon the altar which he had made. He then divided the whole burnt offering in quarters, and laid it on the split wood. And when he had laid it in order upon the altar, he said, Bring me four pots of water and pour it on the whole burnt offering and on the split wood. ³⁴ And when they had done so, he said, Do the same again. And when they had done this a second time, he said, Do it a third time. So they did it a third time, ³⁵ and the water ran down about the altar and filled the trench with water. ³⁶ Then Elias raised his voice to heaven and said, Lord, the God of Abraham and of Isaak and of Israel, hearken to me! Lord, hearken to me this day by fire, And let all this people know, that thou art the Lord God of Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that by thee I have done these works. ³⁷ Hearken to me, Lord! Hearken to me; and let this people know, that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned the heart of this people back again. ³⁸ Thereupon fire from the Lord fell down out of heaven and consumed the whole burnt offering, with the split wood and the water in the trench and the stones, and licked up even the dust. ³⁹ Then all the people fell on their faces and said, Of a truth the Lord is God. He is very God. ⁴⁰ Then Elias said to the people, Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape. So they seized them and brought them to Elias, down to the brook Kison and slew them there. ⁴¹ Then Elias said to Achab, Go up and eat and drink, for there is a sound of coming rain. ⁴² So when Achab went up to eat and drink, Elias went up to the top of Carmel, and having bowed down on the earth, he put his face between his knees ⁴³ and said to his servant, Go up and look towards the sea. And when the servant looked and said, There is nothing, Elias said, Return thou again seven times ⁴⁴ So the servant returned seven times, and at the seventh time he said, Behold there is a little cloud like a man's foot drawing up water. Whereupon he said, Go up and say to Achab, Prepare thy chariot and go down lest the rain overtake thee. ⁴⁵ In the mean while the heaven gradually darkened with clouds and wind, and there came on a great rain, and while Achab wept and was travelling on to Jezrael ⁴⁶ the hand of the Lord was upon Elias and having girded up his loins, he ran before Achab to Jezrael.