Elijah and the Priests of Baal

In the time of his reign Ahab, the son of Omri, was king of the ten tribes, more wicked toward God than anyone. For he married Jezebel, the daughter of Basa, king of Sidon, set up an altar and groves to the idol Baal, and killed the prophets of God. At this time the prophet Elijah, by his prayer, shut up the sky so that it would give the earth no rain. He made this known to the king, so that the wicked king would know that he himself was the cause of the trouble. [a]

So the rains from heaven were held back, and since the whole land, scorched by the heat of the sun, yielded no food for man or beast, the prophet himself was in danger of dying of hunger. At that time he went into the desert, where he lived on food the ravens brought him and on water from a nearby stream, until it dried up. Then, instructed by God, he went to the town of Zarephath and turned aside to stay with a widow. When in his hunger he begged her for food, she complained that she had only a handful of flour and a little oil, and that when these were used up she expected to die along with her children. But Elijah promised, in the words of God, that the flour in the barrel would not run low nor the oil in the jar. The woman did not hesitate to believe the prophet when he asked for her faith, and she saw the promise kept, for each day as much was added as was taken away. At the same time Elijah brought the same widow’s dead son back to life.

Then, at God’s command, he went to the king, rebuked him for his wickedness, and ordered all the people to be gathered to him. When they had quickly assembled, the priests of the idols and of the groves were summoned too, about four hundred and fifty of them. A dispute arose between them, Elijah upholding the honor of God and they their own superstitions. At last they agreed to put it to this test: if fire sent down from heaven burned up the slain sacrifice of either side, the religion that worked the miracle would be accepted as the true one. So the priests killed a calf and began calling on the idol Baal. When they had wasted their prayers to no purpose, they silently admitted that their god was helpless. Then Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry out louder, in case he is asleep, so that you may wake him from the slumber he has sunk into.” The wretched men could only shudder and mutter to themselves, but still they waited to see what Elijah would do. Well, he killed a calf and laid it on the altar, first filling the holy place with water. Then he called on the name of the Lord, and in the sight of all, fire fell from heaven and burned up both the water and the sacrifice. Then indeed the people threw themselves on the ground, confessed God, and cursed the idols. Finally, at Elijah’s command, the wicked priests were seized, brought down to the brook, and killed there.

The prophet followed the king as he went back from that place. But as Jezebel, the king’s wife, was plotting to take his life, he withdrew to a more remote place. There God spoke to him and told him that there were still seven thousand men who had not given themselves over to idols. Elijah found this an amazing statement, for he had thought that he alone had kept himself free from wickedness.