1
After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elias, in the third year, saying: Go, and shew thyself to Achab, that I may give rain upon the face of the earth.
2
And Elias went to shew himself to Achab, and there was a grievous famine in Samaria.
3
And Achab called Abdias the governor of his house: now Abdias feared the Lord very much.
4
For when Jezabel killed the prophets of the Lord, he took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty and fifty in caves, and fed them with bread and water.
5
And Achab said to Abdias: Go into the land unto all fountains of waters, and into all valleys, to see if we can find grass, and save the horses and mules, that the beasts may not utterly perish.
6
And they divided the countries between them, that they might go round about them: Achab went one way, and Abdias another way by himself.
7
And as Abdias was in the way, Elias met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said: Art thou my lord Elias?
8
And he answered: I am. Go, and tell thy master: Elias is here.
9
And he said: What have I sinned, that thou wouldst deliver me, thy servant, into the hand of Achab, that he should kill me?
10
As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when all answered: He is not here: he took an oath of every kingdom and nation, because thou wast not found.
11
And now thou sayest to me: Go and tell thy master: Elias is here.
12
And when I am gone from thee, the Spirit of the Lord will carry thee into a place that I know not: and I shall go in and tell Achab; and he, not finding thee, will kill me: but thy servant feareth the Lord from his infancy.
13
Hath it not been told thee, my lord, what I did when Jezabel killed the prophets of the Lord; how I hid a hundred men of the prophets of the Lord, by fifty and fifty in caves, and fed them with bread and water?
14
And now thou sayest: Go and tell thy master: Elias is here: that he may kill me.
15
And Elias said: As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whose face I stand, this day I will shew myself unto him.
16
Abdias therefore went to meet Achab, and told him: and Achab came to meet Elias.
17
And when he had seen him, he said: Art thou he that troublest Israel?
18
And he said: I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house, who have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed Baalim.
19
Nevertheless send now, and gather unto me all Israel, unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, who eat at Jezabel’s table.
20
Achab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered together the prophets unto mount Carmel.
21
And Elias coming to all the people, said: How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.