1st Kings 18:4-31

⁴For when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, he took an hundred prophets, and hid them, by fifties and fifties, in dens, and fed them with bread and water.

⁵Then Ahab said to Obadiah, Go thou into the land, to all the wells of waters, and into all valleys, if in hap we may find grass, and save horses and mules; and the work beasts perish not utterly.

⁶And they parted the countries to themselves, that they should compass those or them; Ahab went by one way, and Obadiah went by another way, by himself.

⁷And when Obadiah was in the way, Elijah met him; and when he had known Elijah, he felled on his face, and said, Whether thou art my lord Elijah?

⁸To whom he answered, I am. And Elijah said, Go thou, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present.

⁹And Obadiah said, What have I sinned, for thou betakest me in the hand of Ahab, that he slay me?

¹⁰Thy Lord God liveth, for no folk either realm is, whither my lord, seeking thee, sent not; and when all men answered, He is not here, he charged greatly all realms and folks, for thou were not found;

¹¹and now thou sayest to me, Go, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present.

¹²And when I shall depart from thee, the Spirit of the Lord shall bear thee away into a place which I know not; and I shall enter, and tell to Ahab, and he shall not find thee, and he shall slay thee; forsooth thy servant dreadeth the Lord from his young childhood.

¹³Whether it is not showed to thee, my lord, what I did, when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, that I hid of the prophets of the Lord an hundred men, by fifty and fifty, in dens, and I fed them with bread and water?

¹⁴And now thou sayest, Go, and say to thy lord, Elijah is present or is nigh, that he slay me.

¹⁵And Elijah said, The Lord of hosts liveth, before whose sight I stand, for today I shall appear to him.

¹⁶Therefore Obadiah went into the meeting of Ahab, and showed it to him; and Ahab came into the meeting of Elijah.

¹⁷And when he had seen Elijah, he said, Whether thou art he, that troublest Israel?

¹⁸And he said, Not I trouble Israel, but thou, and the house of thy father, which have forsaken the command-ments of the Lord, and pursued or followed Baalim.

¹⁹Nevertheless now send thou, and gather to me all Israel, into the hill of Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of maumet woods, that eat of the table of Jezebel.

²⁰Ahab sent to all the sons of Israel, and gathered together the prophets in the hill of Carmel.

²¹Forsooth Elijah nighed to all the people of Israel, and said, How long halt ye into two parts? If the Lord is God, pursue ye or followeth him; and if Baal is God, pursue ye or followeth him. And the people answered not one word to him.

²²And Elijah said again to the people, I dwelled alone a prophet of the Lord; soothly the prophets of Baal be four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the maumet woods be four hundred men.

²³Twain oxes or two oxen be given to us; and choose they one ox, and they shall cut it into gobbets, and put it on wood, but put they not fire under; and I shall make ready the tother ox into sacrifice, and I shall put it on the wood, and I shall not put fire under it either.

²⁴Call ye the name of your gods, and I shall call the name of my God; and the God that heareth by fire falling down, given from heaven to waste the sacrifice, be he God. And all the people answered, and said, The reason is best, that Elijah hath spoken.

²⁵Therefore Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one ox to you, and make ye ready first your sacrifice, for ye be the more; and call ye the names of your gods, and put ye not fire under.

²⁶And when they had taken the ox, whom or that Elijah gave to them, they made ready the sacrifice, and called the name of Baal, from the morrowtide till to midday, and said, Baal, hear us! And no voice was, neither any that answered; and they skipped over the altar, which they had made.

²⁷And when it was then midday, Elijah scorned them, and said, Cry ye with a greater voice, for Baal is your god, and in hap he speaketh with another, either he is in a harbourgerie, either in the way, either certainly he sleepeth, that he be raised up.

²⁸Therefore they cried with a greater voice, and they cut themselves with knives and lancets, after their custom, till they were beshed with blood.

²⁹But after that midday passed, and while they prophesied, or prayed, the time came, in which the sacrifice is wont to be offered, neither voice was heard of their gods, neither any answered, neither perceived them praying.

³⁰And Elijah said to all the people, Come ye to me. And when the people came to him, he arrayed the altar of the Lord, that was destroyed.

³¹And he took twelve stones, by the number of the lineages of the sons of Jacob, to which Jacob the word of the Lord was made, and said, Israel shall be thy name.