Study Desk

Elijah said, "I am the only prophet of the Lord here, but there are four hundred fifty prophets of Baal.

Bring two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal choose one bull and kill it and cut it into pieces. Then let them put the meat on the wood, but they are not to set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull, putting the meat on the wood but not setting fire to it.

Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "There are many of you, so you go first. Choose a bull and prepare it. Pray to your god, but don't start the fire."

So they took the bull that was given to them and prepared it. They prayed to Baal from morning until noon, shouting "Baal, answer us!" But there was no sound, and no one answered. They danced around the altar they had built.

The afternoon passed, and the prophets continued to act like this until it was time for the evening sacrifice. But no voice was heard; Baal did not answer, and no one paid attention.

He answered, " Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too."

The Lord said to Elijah, "Go, stand in front of me on the mountain, and I will pass by you." Then a very strong wind blew until it caused the mountains to fall apart and large rocks to break in front of the Lord . But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a quiet, gentle sound.

He answered, " Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too."

So Ahab said to Ben-Hadad's messengers, "Tell my master the king: ‘I will do what you said at first, but I cannot allow this second command.'" And King Ben-Hadad's men carried the message back to him.

Each officer of Israel killed the man who came against him. The men from Aram ran away as Israel chased them, but Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with some of his horsemen.

This is what you should do. Don't allow the thirty-two rulers to command the armies, but put other commanders in their places.

The Israelites also had prepared for war. They marched out to meet the Arameans and camped opposite them. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the area.

One prophet from one of the groups of prophets told another, "Hit me!" He said this because the Lord had commanded it, but the other man refused.

But I was busy doing other things, so the man ran away." The king of Israel answered, "You have already said what the punishment is. You must do what the man said."

Ahab answered, "I talked to Naboth, the man from Jezreel. I said, ‘Sell me your vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it.' But Naboth refused."

"I see that Ahab is now sorry for what he has done. So I will not cause the trouble to come to him during his life, but I will wait until his son is king. Then I will bring this trouble to Ahab's family."

Jehoshaphat also said to Ahab, "But first we should ask if this is the Lord 's will."

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Isn't there a prophet of the Lord here? Let's ask him what we should do."

Then King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "There is one other prophet. We could ask the Lord through him, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything good about me, but something bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah." Jehoshaphat said, "King Ahab, you shouldn't say that!"