1 Kings
Chapter Ninteen
1 ¶ And Ahab told
Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets
with the sword.
2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do
to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them
by tomorrow about this time."
3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba,
which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It
is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"
5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him,
and said to him, "Arise and eat."
6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar
of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again.
7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and
said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you."
8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty
days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
9 ¶ And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and
behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, "What are
you doing here, Elijah?"
10 So he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for
the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and
killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take
my life."
11 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD."
And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains
and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind;
and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake;
12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after
the fire a still small voice.
13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and
went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him,
and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
14 And he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because
the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and
killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take
my life."
15 Then the LORD said to him: "Go, return on your way to the Wilderness
of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria.
16 "Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And
Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your
place.
17 "It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill;
and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.
18 "Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have
not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
19 ¶ So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who
was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth.
Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him.
20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me
kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said
to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?"
21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them
and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people,
and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
Go to Chapter Twenty
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