1 Kings 19–20

Elijah Runs Away

19King Ahab told Jezebel every thing Elijah had done and how Elijah had killed all the prophets with a sword. ²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me terribly if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill you just as you killed those prophets.”

³When Elijah heard this, he was afraid and ran for his life, taking his servant with him. When they came to Beersheba in Judah, Elijah left his servant there. ⁴Then Elijah walked for a whole day into the desert. He sat down under a bush and asked to die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he prayed. “Let me die. I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵Then he lay down under the tree and slept.

Suddenly an angel came to him and touched him. “Get up and eat,” the angel said. ⁶Elijah saw near his head a loaf baked over coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he went back to sleep.

⁷Later the Lord’s angel came to him a second time. The angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat. If you don’t, the journey will be too hard for you.” ⁸So Elijah got up and ate and drank. The food made him strong enough to walk for forty days and nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. ⁹There Elijah went into a cave and stayed all night.

Then the Lord spoke his word to him: “Elijah! Why are you here?”

¹⁰He answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

¹¹The Lord said to Elijah, “Go, stand in front of me on the mountain, and I will pass by you.” Then a very strong wind blew until it caused the mountains to fall apart and large rocks to break in front of the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹²After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a quiet, gentle sound. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “Elijah! Why are you here?”

¹⁴He answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you as well as I could. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you, destroyed your altars, and killed your prophets with swords. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

¹⁵The Lord said to him, “Go back on the road that leads to the desert around Damascus. Enter that city, and pour olive oil on Hazael to make him king over Aram. ¹⁶Then pour oil on Jehu son of Nimshi to make him king over Israel. Next, pour oil on Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to make him a prophet in your place. ¹⁷Jehu will kill anyone who escapes from Hazael’s sword, and Elisha will kill anyone who escapes from Jehu’s sword. ¹⁸I have seven thousand people left in Israel who have never bowed down before Baal and whose mouths have never kissed his idol.”

Elisha Becomes a Prophet

¹⁹So Elijah left that place and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field with a team of oxen. He owned twelve teams of oxen and was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah came up to Elisha, took off his coat, and put it on Elisha. ²⁰Then Elisha left his oxen and ran to follow Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother good-bye,” Elisha said. “Then I will go with you.”

Elijah answered, “Go back. It does not matter to me.”

²¹So Elisha went back and took his pair of oxen and killed them. He used their wooden yoke for a fire. Then he cooked the meat and gave it to the people. After they ate it, Elisha left and followed Elijah and became his helper.

Ben-Hadad and Ahab Go to War

20Ben-Hadad king of Aram gathered together all his army. There were thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots who went with him and surrounded Samaria and attacked it. ²The king sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel.

This was his message: “Ben-Hadad says, ³‘Your silver and gold belong to me, as well as the best of your wives and children.’ ”

⁴Ahab king of Israel answered, “My master and king, I agree to what you say. I and everything I have belong to you.”

⁵Then the messengers came to Ahab again. They said, “Ben-Hadad says, ‘I told you before that you must give me your silver and gold, your wives and your children. ⁶About this time tomorrow I will send my men, who will search everywhere in your palace and in the homes of your officers. Whatever they want they will take and carry off.’ ”

⁷Then Ahab called a meeting of all the elders of his country. He said, “Ben-Hadad is looking for trouble. First he said I had to give him my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold, and I have not refused him.”

⁸The elders and all the people said, “Don’t listen to him or agree to this.”

⁹So Ahab said to Ben-Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my master the king: ‘I will do what you said at first, but I cannot allow this second command.’ ” And King Ben-Hadad’s men carried the message back to him.

¹⁰Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods punish me terribly if I don’t completely destroy Samaria. There won’t be enough left for each of my men to get a handful of dust!”

¹¹Ahab answered, “Tell Ben-Hadad, ‘The man who puts on his armor should not brag. It’s the man who lives to take it off who has the right to brag.’ ”

¹²Ben-Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers when the message came from Ahab. Ben-Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city, and they moved into place for battle.

¹³At the same time a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel. The prophet said, “Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that big army? I will hand it over to you today so you will know I am the Lord.’ ”

¹⁴Ahab asked, “Who will you use to defeat them?”

The prophet answered, “The Lord says, ‘The young officers of the district governors will defeat them.’ ”

Then the king asked, “Who will command the main army?”

The prophet answered, “You will.”

¹⁵So Ahab gathered the young officers of the district governors, two hundred thirty-two of them. Then he called together the army of Israel, about seven thousand people in all.

¹⁶They marched out at noon, while Ben-Hadad and the thirty-two rulers helping him were getting drunk in their tents. ¹⁷The young officers of the district governors attacked first. Ben-Hadad sent out scouts who told him that soldiers were coming from Samaria. ¹⁸Ben-Hadad said, “They may be coming to fight, or they may be coming to ask for peace. In either case capture them alive.”

¹⁹The young officers of the district governors led the attack, followed by the army of Israel. ²⁰Each officer of Israel killed the man who came against him. The men from Aram ran away as Israel chased them, but Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with some of his horsemen. ²¹Ahab king of Israel led the army and destroyed the Arameans’ horses and chariots. King Ahab thoroughly defeated the Aramean army.

²²Then the prophet went to Ahab king of Israel and said, “The king of Aram will attack you again next spring. So go home now and strengthen your army and see what you need to do.”

²³Meanwhile the officers of Ben-Hadad king of Aram said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods. Since we fought in a mountain area, Israel won. Let’s fight them on the flat land, and then we will win. ²⁴This is what you should do. Don’t allow the thirty-two rulers to command the armies, but put other commanders in their places. ²⁵Gather an army like the one that was destroyed and as many horses and chariots as before. We will fight the Israelites on flat land, and then we will win.” Ben-Hadad agreed with their advice and did what they said.

²⁶The next spring Ben-Hadad gathered the army of Aram and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

²⁷The Israelites also had prepared for war. They marched out to meet the Arameans and camped opposite them. The Israelites looked like two small flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the area.

²⁸A man of God came to the king of Israel with this message: “The Lord says, ‘The people of Aram say that I, the Lord, am a god of the mountains, not a god of the valleys. So I will allow you to defeat this huge army, and then you will know I am the Lord.’ ”

²⁹The armies were camped across from each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed one hundred thousand Aramean soldiers in one day. ³⁰The rest of them ran away to the city of Aphek, where a city wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of them. Ben-Hadad also ran away to the city and hid in a room.

³¹His officers said to him, “We have heard that the kings of Israel are trustworthy. Let’s dress in rough cloth to show our sadness, and wear ropes on our heads. Then we will go to the king of Israel, and perhaps he will let you live.”

³²So they dressed in rough cloth and wore ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ”

Ahab answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

³³Ben-Hadad’s men had wanted a sign from Ahab. So when Ahab called Ben-Hadad his brother, they quickly said, “Yes! Ben-Hadad is your brother.”

Ahab said, “Bring him to me.” When Ben-Hadad came, Ahab asked him to join him in the chariot.

³⁴Ben-Hadad said to him, “Ahab, I will give you back the cities my father took from your father. And you may put shops in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”

Ahab said, “If you agree to this, I will allow you to go free.” So the two kings made a peace agreement. Then Ahab let Ben-Hadad go free.

A Prophet Speaks Against Ahab

³⁵One prophet from one of the groups of prophets told another, “Hit me!” He said this because the Lord had commanded it, but the other man refused. ³⁶The prophet said, “You did not obey the Lord’s command, so a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” When the man left, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷The prophet went to another man and said,…