—This is a comic touch in that the theophany offered to Elijah (the comic foil of Moses) turns out to be only the sound of silence, with no presence of Yahweh at all in the theophanic manifestations. One cannot help wondering if some such obscure point was intended why the text could not have pointed it out more plainly! The position taken here is that this vivid scene has an important function in the plot of the story but carries no deep “theological message.” These verses use the traditional language