1 Kings 18:12-22

12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth.

13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

15 Elijah said, “As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

Elijah on Mount Carmel

16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.

19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

1 Kings 18:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 18

In this chapter Elijah has an order from the Lord to show himself to Ahab, who, going first, and meeting with a servant of his, Obadiah, charges him to tell his master where he was, that he might meet him, 1Ki 18:1-16, and, upon meeting him, desires that all Israel, and the prophets of Baal, might be convened, which was accordingly done, 1Ki 18:17-20, when he expostulated with the people of Israel for their idolatry, mocked and confounded the prophets of Baal, and gave the strongest proofs, to the conviction of the people, that Jehovah is the true God, 1Ki 18:21-39, on which all the prophets of Baal were slain, 1Ki 18:40, and rain in great abundance was given at the prayer of the prophet, 1Ki 18:41-46.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 2:16; Ezekiel 3:14; Acts 8:39
• 2. ver 1; 1 Kings 17:1
• 3. Joshua 7:25; 1 Samuel 14:29; 1 Kings 21:20; Jeremiah 38:4; Acts 16:20
• 4. 1 Kings 16:31,33; 1 Kings 21:25
• 5. S Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Chronicles 15:2
• 6. 2 Kings 10:19
• 7. S Joshua 19:26
• 8. 2 Kings 9:22
• 9. 2 Kings 2:25; 2 Kings 4:25
• 10. Joshua 24:15; 2 Kings 17:41; Psalms 119:113; Matthew 6:24
• 11. ver 39; Psalms 100:3; Psalms 118:27
• 12. 1 Kings 19:10
• 13. ver 19; Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 23:13