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Elijah’s Message to Ahab

18After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought,^* saying, ‘Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.’ ²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. ³Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah revered the Lord greatly; ⁴when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water.) ⁵Then Ahab said to Obadiah, ‘Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.’ ⁶So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

7 As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face, and said, ‘Is it you, my lord Elijah?’ ⁸He answered him, ‘It is I. Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.’ ⁹And he said, ‘How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me? ¹⁰As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, “He is not here”, he would require an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. ¹¹But now you say, “Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.” ¹²As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth. ¹³Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water? ¹⁴Yet now you say, “Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here”; he will surely kill me.’ ¹⁵Elijah said, ‘As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.’ ¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’ ¹⁸He answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.