1 Kings 16–18

16Then the word of the Lord came to ^aJehu the son of ^bHanani, against ^cBaasha, saying: ^2d“Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and ^eyou have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, ³surely I will ^ftake ¹away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like ^gthe house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ⁴The dogs shall eat ^hwhoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the fields.”

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his might, ⁱare they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ⁶So Baasha ²rested with his fathers and was buried in ^jTirzah. Then Elah his son reigned in his place.

⁷And also the word of the Lord came by the prophet ^kJehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because ^lhe killed them.

Elah Reigns in Israel

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Tirzah. ^9mNow his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ⁿsteward ³of his house in Tirzah. ¹⁰And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹Then it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he was seated on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he ^odid not leave him one male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends. ¹²Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, ^paccording to the word of the Lord, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, ¹³for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they had sinned and by which they had made Israel sin, in provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger ^qwith their ⁴idols.

¹⁴Now 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 in Israel

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri had reigned in Tirzah seven days. And the people were encamped ^ragainst Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. ¹⁶Now the people who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired and also has killed the king.” So 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 they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸And it happened, when Zimri saw that the city was ⁵taken, that he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house ⁶down upon himself with fire, and died, ¹⁹because of the sins which he had committed in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, ^sin walking in the ^tway of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he had committed to make Israel sin.

²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the treason he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Omri Reigns in 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, and half followed Omri. ²²But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. ²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and reigned twelve years. Six years he reigned in ^uTirzah. ²⁴And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; then he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, ^vSamaria, ⁷after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill. ^25wOmri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all who were before him. ²⁶For he ^xwalked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their ^yidols. ⁸

²⁷Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁸So Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. Then Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

²⁹In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. ³⁰Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. ³¹And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^zthat he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the ^aSidonians; ^band he went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³²Then he set up an altar for Baal in ^cthe temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. ^33dAnd Ahab made a ⁹wooden image. Ahab ^edid more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ³⁴In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation ¹with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, ^faccording to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.

Elijah Proclaims a Drought

17And Elijah the Tishbite, of the ^ainhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ^b“As the Lord God of Israel lives, ^cbefore whom I stand, ^dthere shall not be dew nor rain ^ethese years, except at my word.”

²Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³“Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁴And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ^fravens to feed you there.”

⁵So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁶The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. ⁷And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah and the Widow

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹“Arise, go to ^gZarephath, which belongs to ^hSidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” ¹⁰So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” ¹¹And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

¹²So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a ¹jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and ⁱdie.”

¹³And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”

¹⁵So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.

Elijah Revives the Widow’s Son

¹⁷Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so ²serious that ³there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸So she said to Elijah, ^j“What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?”

¹⁹And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” ^21kAnd he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” ²²Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he ^lrevived.

²³And 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 lives!”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this ^mI know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.”

Elijah’s Message to Ahab

18And it came to pass after ^amany days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and ^bI will send rain on the earth.”

²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in Samaria. ³And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was ¹in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. ⁴For so it was, while Jezebel ²massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) ⁵And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock.” ⁶So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he ^crecognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”

⁸And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”

⁹So he said, “How have I sinned, that you are delivering your servant into the…