1 Rois 19

Elijah flees to Horeb

¹Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, including how he had put all the prophets to the sword. ²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me ever so severely if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the life of one of them.” ³When Elijah saw how things stood, he got up and fled for his life. He reached Beersheba, in Judah, and left his servant there.^{a 4}But he himself went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom tree and sat down under it, and he prayed that he might die. “It is enough,” he said. “Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. And all at once an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” ⁶He looked, and there by his head was a loaf baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and then lay down again. ⁷The angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” ⁸So he got up, ate and drank, and in the strength of that food he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.^{b 9}There he came to the cave and spent the night in it. Then the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁰He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Armies, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and now they are seeking to take my life.” ¹¹The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD.” And there, the LORD was passing by. A mighty, fierce wind was splitting the mountains and smashing the rocks to pieces ahead of the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake; the LORD was not in the earthquake.^{c 12}Then came fire after the earthquake, but the LORD was not in the fire. And when the fire had passed, a faint sound, thin as silence.^{d 13}When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his cloak around his face, went out, and stood at the cave’s mouth. Then a voice came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Armies, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and now they are seeking to take my life.”

The call of Elisha

¹⁵The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶Anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to be prophet in your place. ¹⁷Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will put to death, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will put to death. ¹⁸Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, everyone whose knees have not bent to Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”^{e 19}So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing. There were twelve pairs of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth pair. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him. ²⁰Then Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother goodbye, please, and then I will follow you.” Elijah said to him, “Go back. What have I done to you?”^{f 21}Elisha turned back from following him. He took the pair of oxen and slaughtered them, boiled their meat using the oxen’s gear for fuel, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he got up, followed Elijah and became his attendant.