1 Kings 16–18

CHAPTER 16

¹Now the word of Yahweh came to ^aJehu the son of ^bHanani against Baasha, saying,

²“Inasmuch as I ^aexalted you from the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and ^byou have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made My people Israel sin, provoking Me to anger with their sins,

³behold, ^aI am going to sweep away ^bBaasha and his house, and ^cI will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

⁴“^aAnyone of Baasha who dies in the city the dogs will eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the sky will eat.”

^5aNow the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

⁶And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in ^aTirzah, and Elah his son became king in his place.

⁷Moreover, the word of Yahweh through the hand of ^athe prophet Jehu the son of Hanani also came about against Baasha and his household, both because of all the evil which he did in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to anger with ^bthe work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because ^che struck ¹it.

Elah Reigns over Israel

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel at Tirzah, and reigned two years.

⁹And his servant ^aZimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was at Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ^bwho was over the household at Tirzah.

¹⁰Then Zimri went in and struck him and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and became king in his place.

¹¹Now it happened when he became king, as soon as he sat on his throne, that ^ahe struck down all the household of Baasha; he did not leave ¹a single male—not even any of his kinsman redeemers or his friends.

¹²Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, ^aaccording to the word of Yahweh, which He spoke against Baasha by the hand of ^bJehu the prophet,

¹³for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned and which they made Israel sin, ^aprovoking Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their ¹idols.

^14aNow the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Zimri Reigns over Israel

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days at Tirzah. Now the people were camped against ^aGibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.

¹⁶And the people who were camped heard ¹it said, “Zimri has conspired and has also struck down the king.” Therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp.

¹⁷Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.

¹⁸Now it happened that when Zimri saw that the city was captured, he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and ^adied,

¹⁹because of his sins which he sinned, doing what is evil in the sight of Yahweh, ^awalking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel sin.

^20aNow the rest of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy which he ¹carried out, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Omri Reigns over Israel

²¹Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; the other half followed Omri.

²²But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. And Tibni died and Omri became king.

²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel and reigned twelve years; he reigned six years at ^aTirzah.

²⁴And he bought the hill ¹Samaria from Shemer for two ²talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and named the city which he built ^3aSamaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

^25aAnd Omri did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and ^bacted more wickedly than all who were before him.

²⁶For he ^awalked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins which he made Israel sin, provoking Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their ¹idols.

²⁷Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did and his might which he ¹showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²⁸So Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son became king in his place.

Ahab Reigns over Israel

²⁹Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

³⁰And Ahab the son of Omri did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh ^amore than all who were before him.

³¹Now it happened, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that ^ahe took Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the ^bSidonians as a wife, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.

³²So he erected an altar for Baal in ^athe house of Baal which he built in Samaria.

³³Ahab also made ^athe ¹Asherah. Thus ^bAhab did more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

^34aIn his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of Yahweh, which He spoke by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun.

CHAPTER 17

A Widow Sustains Elijah

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of ^1athe settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “^bAs Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, surely ^cthere shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

²Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

³“Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is ¹east of the Jordan.

⁴“And it will be that you will drink of the brook, and ^aI have commanded the ravens to sustain you there.”

⁵So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is ¹east of the Jordan.

⁶And the ravens were bringing him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.

⁷Now it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

⁸Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

⁹“Arise, go to ^aZarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and remain there; behold, ^bI have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”

¹⁰So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and ^ahe called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a ¹jar, that I may drink.”

¹¹So she went to get it, and he called to her and said, “Please get me a piece of bread in your hand.”

¹²But she said, “^aAs Yahweh your God lives, ^bI have no ¹bread, only a handful of flour in the ²bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering ³a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and ^cdie.”

¹³Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from ¹it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

¹⁴“For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘The ¹bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil ²be empty, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the face of the earth.’”

¹⁵So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.

¹⁶The ¹bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil ²become empty, according to the word of Yahweh which He spoke by the hand of Elijah.

Yahweh Returns Life to the Widow’s Son

¹⁷Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

¹⁸So she said to Elijah, “^aWhat do I have to do with you, O ^bman of God? ¹You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”

¹⁹And he said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.

²⁰Then he called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am sojourning, by causing her son to die?”

^21aThen he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return ¹to him.”

²²And Yahweh heard the voice of Elijah, ^aand the life of the child returned ¹to him and he became alive.

²³Then Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “^aNow I know this: that you are a man of God and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.”

CHAPTER 18

Obadiah Meets Elijah

¹Now it happened ^aafter many days that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and ^bI will send rain on the face of the earth.”

²So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.

³And Ahab called Obadiah ^awho was over the household. (Now Obadiah ^1bfeared Yahweh greatly.

⁴And it happened that ^awhen Jezebel was cutting down the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and ^bsustained them with bread and water.)

⁵Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys; perhaps we will find grass and keep the horses and mules alive, and not have to cut down some of the cattle.”

⁶So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷Now it happened that as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah ¹met him, ^aand he recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is this you, Elijah my master?”

⁸And he said…