Study Desk

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

So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but place no fire under it."

Now it happened at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or relieving himself, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened."

Now Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the tumult of rain."

And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his young man there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O Yahweh, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

And the angel of Yahweh came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."

And he said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, pulled down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

Then he said, "I have been very zealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, pulled down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

So he forsook the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?"

Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, "Please know and see how this man is looking for trouble; for he sent to me for my wives and my children and my silver and my gold, and I withheld nothing from him."

So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, "Say to my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do, but this thing I cannot do.'" And the messengers departed and brought him word again.

Then Ben-hadad sent to him and said, "May the gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria will be sufficient for a handful for all the people who follow me."

Then he said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive."

Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself and know and see what you have to do; for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you."

and you shall number a military force like the military force that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they." And he listened to their voice and did so.

Now the sons of Israel were mustered and were provided for and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the land.

And Ben-hadad said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I will return, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria." Ahab said, "And I will let you go with this covenant." So he cut a covenant with him and let him go.

So the prophet walked away and stood by, for the king by the way, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.

Now it happened that as the king was passing by, he cried out to the king and said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.'