1 Kings 18:10-20

10 "¹As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where * my master has not sent to search for you; and when they said, 'He is not here,' he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you.

11 "And now you are saying, 'Go, say to your master, "Behold, Elijah is here."'

12 "It will come about when I leave * you ²that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you where * I do not know; so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth.

13 "³Has it not been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, that I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water?

14 "And now you are saying, 'Go, say to your master, "Behold, Elijah is here"'; he will then kill me."

15 Elijah said, "⁴As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today."

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

17 When Ahab saw Elijah, ⁵Ahab said to him, "Is this you, you troubler of Israel?"

18 He said, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, because ⁶you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and ⁷you have followed * the Baals.

19 "Now then send and gather to me all Israel at ⁸Mount Carmel, ⁹together with 450 * * prophets of Baal and 400 * prophets of ¹⁰the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

God or Baal on Mount Carmel

20 So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

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1 Kings 18:10-20 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 10

1. 1 Kings 17:1
2. 2 Kings 2:16; Ezekiel 3:12, 14; Acts 8:39
3. 1 Kings 18:4
4. 1 Kings 17:1
5. Joshua 7:25; 1 Kings 21:20
6. 1 Kings 9:9; 2 Chronicles 15:2
7. 1 Kings 16:31; 1 Kings 21:25, 26
8. Joshua 19:26; 2 Kings 2:25
9. 1 Kings 18:22
10. 1 Kings 16:33

Footnotes 2

[a]. Or "revered"
[b]. Lit "a hundred men of the prophets"