Elijah’s Message to Ahab

1After processe of many dayes, the word of the Lord came to Elias in the third yere, saying: Go shewe thy selfe vnto Ahab, and I wyll sende rayne vpon the earth. 2And Elias went to shewe him selfe vnto Ahab: and there was a great famishment in Samaria. 3And Ahab called Obadia, which was the gouernour of his house: (and Obadia feared God greatly. 4For when Iezabel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, Obadia toke an hundred prophets, and hid them by fiftie in a caue, and prouided bread and water for them.) 5And Ahab saide vnto Obadia: Go into the lande, vnto all fountaines of water, and vnto all brookes, if happyly we may finde grasse to saue the horses and mules aliue, and that we destroy not some of the beastes. 6And so they deuided the lande betweene them to walke through it: Ahab went one way by him selfe, and Obadia went another way by him selfe.

7And it chaunced that as Obadia was in the way, beholde Elias met him, and he knew him, and fell on his face, and saide: Art not thou my lorde Elias? 8And he aunswered him, I am he: Go, and tel thy lorde, beholde, Elias is here. 9He saide: What haue I sinned, that thou wouldest delyuer thy seruaunt into the hande of Ahab, to slay me? 10As the Lorde thy God liueth, there is no nation or kingdome, whyther my lord hath not sent to seeke thee: And when they saide, he is not there: he toke an oth of the kingdome and nation when he found thee not. 11And now thou sayest, Go, and tell thy lorde that Elias is here. 12And assoone as I am gone from thee, the spirite of the Lorde shall carrie thee into some place that I do not knowe, and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can not finde thee, he shall slay me: But I thy seruaunt feare the Lorde from my youth vp. 13Was it not tolde my lorde what I did, when Iezabel slue the prophets of the Lorde? how I hid an hundred men of the Lordes prophets, fiftie men in one caue, and fiftie in another, and prouided them of bread and water? 14And thou sayest, Go thou now & shewe thy lorde, beholde Elias is here: that he may slay me. 15And Elias saide: As the Lorde of hoastes liueth before whom I stand, I wyll shewe my selfe vnto him this day.

Elijah on Mount Carmel

16So Obadia went to meete Ahab, and tolde him: And Ahab went to meete Elias.

17And it fortuned that when Ahab sawe Elias, he saide vnto him: Art thou he that troubleth Israel? 18He aunswered: It is not I that haue troubled Israel, but thou and thy fathers house, in that ye haue forsaken the commaundements of the Lorde, & thou hast folowed Baal. 19Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel vnto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal foure hundred and fiftie, and the prophets of the idols groues foure hundred, which eate at Iezabels table.

20So Ahab sent vnto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together vnto mount Carmel. 21And Elias came vnto all the people, and said: how long halt ye betweene two opinions? If the Lorde be God, folowe him: but if Baal be he, then go after him. And the people aunswered him not one worde. 22Then saide Elias vnto the people againe I onely remayne a prophete of the Lorde: but Baals prophets are foure hundred and fiftie. 23Let them therefore geue vs two oxen, and let them choose the one, & cut hym in peeces, and lay him on wood, and put no fire vnder: and I wyll dresse the other oxe, and laye him on wood, & wyll put no fyre vnder. 24And call ye on the name of your gods, & I wyl call on the name of the Lorde: and then the God that aunswereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people aunswered and saide, It is wel spoken.

25And Elias saide vnto the prophets of Baal: Choose you an oxe, & dresse him first, for ye are many: & call on the name of your gods, but put no fire vnder. 26And they toke the one oxe that he dyd geue them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning to noone, saying, O Baal heare vs. But there was no voyce, nor one to aunswere: And they lept vpon the aulter that they had made. 27And at noone Elias mocked them, and sayde: Crye lowde, for he is a God, peraduenture he is talking, or occupied in folowing vpon his enemies, or is in his iourney, or happyly he slepeth, and must be awaked with your crie. 28And they cried lowde, and cut them selues as their maner was with kniues & launcers, till the blood folowed on the. 29And it chaunced, that when midday was passed, they prophesied vntill the time of the euening sacrifice: But there was neither voyce, nor one to aunswere, nor any that regarded them.

30And Elias said vnto all the folke: Come to me. And all the people came to him: And he repaired the aulter of the Lord that was broken. 31And Elias toke twelue stones, according to the number of the twelue tribes of the sonnes of Iacob, vnto whom the word of the Lorde came, saying: Israel shalbe thy name. 32And with the stones he made an aulter in the name of the Lorde: And he made a ditch about the aulter, as great as would conteyne two measures of seede. 33And he put the wood in order, and hewed the oxe in peeces, and layed him on the wood, and said: Fill foure barrels with water, and powre it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. 34And he sayde: Do so againe. And they dyd so the seconde time. And he sayde againe: Do it the thirde time. And they dyd it the thirde time: 35And the water ran round about the aulter, & he filled the pitte with water also.

Elijah’s Prayer

36And it fortuned, that when they should offer the euening sacrifice, Elias the prophete came, and sayde: Lorde God of Abraham, Isahac, and of Israel, it shalbe knowen this day that thou art the God in Israel, & that I am thy seruaunt, and that I haue done all these thinges at thy commaundement. 37Heare me O Lord, heare me, that this people may knowe that thou art the Lorde God, and that thou hast turned their heart againe nowe at the last. 38And the fire of the Lord fel, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the duste, and licked vp the water that was in the pit. 39And when all the people sawe it, they fell on their faces, and sayde: The Lord he is God, the Lorde he is God. 40And Elias sayd vnto them: Take the prophetes of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And they toke them, and Elias brought them vnto the brooke Kison, and slue them there.

The LORD Sends Rain

41And Elias sayde vnto Ahab: Get thee vp, eate and drinke: for there is a sounde of much rayne. 42And so Ahab went vp to eate and to drinke, and Elias went vp to the top of Carmel, and he layde him selfe flat vpo the earth, and put his face betweene his knees, 43And sayde to his seruaunt: Go vp I pray thee and loke towarde the way of the sea. And he went vp, and loked, and sayde: There is nothing. And againe he sayde: Go againe seuen times. 44And it fortuned that at the seuenth time, he sayde: Beholde there aryseth a litle cloude of the sea lyke a mans hand. He sayde: Go, and say vnto Ahab, Make fast thy charet and get thee downe, that the rayne stoppe thee not. 45And it came to passe, that in the meane whyle the heauen was blacke with cloudes and winde, & there was a great rayne: And Ahab gat vp, and came to Iezrahel. 46And the hande of the Lorde was on Elias, and he girded vp his loynes, and ranne before Ahab, till he came to Iezrahel.