1 Kings 17:16

17:16 The jar of flour was never empty and the jug of oil never ran out, just as the Lord had promised¹ through Elijah.

1 Kings 17:24

17:24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a prophet and that the Lord really does speak through you.”²

1 Kings 18:15

18:15 But Elijah said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all³ lives (whom I serve),⁴ I will make an appearance before him today.”

1 Kings 18:22

18:22 Elijah said to them:⁵ “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.

1 Kings 18:30-31

18:30 Elijah then told all the people, “Approach me.” So all the people approached him. He repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down.⁶ 18:31 Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes that descended from Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, “Israel will be your new⁷ name.”⁸

1 Kings 18:41

18:41 Then Elijah told Ahab, “Go on up and eat and drink, for the sound of a heavy rainstorm can be heard.”⁹

1 Kings 18:46--19:1

18:46 Now the Lord energized Elijah with power;¹⁰ he tucked his robe into his belt¹¹ and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Elijah Runs for His Life

19:1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, including a detailed account of how he killed all the prophets with the sword.

1 Kings 19:3

19:3 Elijah was afraid,¹² so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there,

1 Kings 19:9

19:9 He went into a cave there and spent the night. All of a sudden the Lord spoke to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

¹tn Heb “out, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke.”

²tn Heb “you are a man of God and the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth.”

sn This episode is especially significant in light of Ahab’s decision to promote Baal worship in Israel. In Canaanite mythology the drought that swept over the region (v. 1) would signal that Baal, a fertility god responsible for providing food for his subjects, had been defeated by the god of death and was imprisoned in the underworld. While Baal was overcome by death and unable to function like a king, Israel’s God demonstrated his sovereignty and superiority to death by providing food for a widow and restoring life to her son. And he did it all in Sidonian territory, Baal’s back yard, as it were. The episode demonstrates that Israel’s God, not Baal, is the true king who provides food and controls life and death. This polemic against Baalism reaches its climax in the next chapter, when the Lord proves that he, not Baal, controls the elements of the storm and determines when the rains will fall.

³tn Traditionally, “the Lord of Hosts.”

⁴tn Heb “(before whom I stand).”

⁵tn Heb “to the people.”

⁶sn Torn down. The condition of the altar symbolizes the spiritual state of the people.

⁷tn The word “new” is implied but not actually present in the Hebrew text.

⁸sn Israel will be your new name. See Gen 32:28; 35:10.

⁹tn Heb “for [there is] the sound of the roar of the rain.”

¹⁰tn Heb “and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah.”

¹¹tn Heb “and girded up his loins.” The idea is that of gathering up the robes and tucking them into the sash or belt so that they do not get in the way of the legs when running (or working or fighting).

¹²tc The MT has “and he saw,” but some medieval Hebrew mss as well as several ancient versions support the reading “he was afraid.” The consonantal text (וַיַּרְא, vayyar’) is ambiguous and can be vocalized וַיַּרְא (from רָאָה, ra’ah, “to see”) or וַיִּרָא (vayyira’, from יָרֵא, yare’, “to fear”).