Antiquities of the Jews — Book 8, Chapter 13

1. Now Ahab the king of Israel dwelt in Samaria, and held the government
for twenty-two years; and made no alteration in the conduct of the kings
that were his predecessors, but only in such things as were of his own
invention for the worse, and in his most gross wickedness. He imitated
them in their wicked courses, and in their injurious behavior towards
God, and more especially he imitated the transgression of Jeroboam; for
he worshipped the heifers that he had made; and he contrived other
absurd objects of worship besides those heifers: he also took to wife
the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, whose name
was Jezebel, of whom he learned to worship her own gods. This woman was
active and bold, and fell into so great a degree of impurity and
madness, that she built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, Which they
call Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts of trees; she also
appointed priests and false prophets to this god. The king also himself
had many such about him, and so exceeded in madness and wickedness all
[the kings] that went before him.

2. There was now a prophet of God Almighty, of Thesbon, a country in
Gilead, that came to Ahab, and said to him, that God foretold he would
not send rain nor dew in those years upon the country but when he should
appear. And when he had confirmed this by an oath, he departed into the
southern parts, and made his abode by a brook, out of which he had water
to drink; for as for his food, ravens brought it to him every day: but
when that river was dried up for want of rain, he came to Zarephath, a
city not far from Sidon and Tyre, for it lay between them, and this at
the command of God, for [God told him] that he should there find a woman
who was a widow that should give him sustenance. So when he was not far
off the city, he saw a woman that labored with her own hands, gathering
of sticks: so God informed him that this was the woman who was to give
him sustenance. So he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him
some water to drink; but as she was going so to do, he called to her,
and would have her to bring him a loaf of bread also; whereupon she
affirmed upon oath that she had at home nothing more than one handful of
meal, and a little oil, and that she was going to gather some sticks,
that she might knead it, and make bread for herself and her son; after
which, she said, they must perish, and be consumed by the famine, for
they had nothing for themselves any longer. Hereupon he said, "Go on
with good courage, and hope for better things; and first of all make me
a little cake, and bring it to me, for I foretell to thee that this
vessel of meal and this cruse of oil shall not fail until God send
rain." When the prophet had said this, she came to him, and made him the
before-named cake; of which she had part for herself, and gave the rest
to her son, and to the prophet also; nor did any thing of this fall
until the drought ceased. Now Menander mentions this drought in his
account of the acts of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians; where he says thus:
"Under him there was a want of rain from the month Hyperberetmus till
the month Hyperberetmus of the year following; but when he made
supplications, there came great thunders. This Ethbaal built the city
Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city Auza in Libya." By these words he
designed the want of rain that was in the days of Ahab, for at that time
it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as Menander informs
us.

3. Now this woman, of whom we spake before, that sustained the prophet,
when her son was fallen into a distemper till he gave up the ghost, and
appeared to be dead, came to the prophet weeping, and beating her
breasts with her hands, and sending out such expressions as her passions
dictated to her, and complained to him that he had come to her to
reproach her for her sins, and that on this account it was that her son
was dead. But he bid her be of good cheer, and deliver her son to him,
for that he would deliver him again to her alive. So when she had
delivered her son up to him, he carried him into an upper room, where he
himself lodged, and laid him down upon the bed, and cried unto God, and
said, that God had not done well, in rewarding the woman who had
entertained him and sustained him, by taking away her son; and he prayed
that he would send again the soul of the child into him, and bring him
to life again. Accordingly God took pity on the mother, and was willing
to gratify the prophet, that he might not seem to have come to her to do
her a mischief, and the child, beyond all expectation, came to life
again. So the mother returned the prophet thanks, and said she was then
clearly satisfied that God did converse with him.

4. After a little while Elijah came to king Ahab, according to God's
will, to inform him that rain was coming. Now the famine had seized upon
the whole country, and there was a great want of what was necessary for
sustenance, insomuch that it was after the recovery of the widow's son
of Sarepta, God sent not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself
also, which did not produce enough for the horse and the other beasts of
what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought. So the
king called for Obadiah, who was steward over his cattle, and said to
him, that he would have him go to the fountains of water, and to the
brooks, that if any herbs could be found for them, they might mow it
down, and reserve it for the beasts. And when he had sent persons all
over the habitable earth 33 to discover the prophet Elijah, and they
could not find him, he bade Obadiah accompany him. So it was resolved
they should make a progress, and divide the ways between them; and
Obadiah took one road, and the king another. Now it happened that the
same time when queen Jezebel slew the prophets, that this Obadiah had
hidden a hundred prophets, and had fed them with nothing but bread and
water. But when Obadiah was alone, and absent from the king, the prophet
Elijah met him; and Obadiah asked him who he was; and when he had
learned it from him, he worshipped him. Elijah then bid him go to the
king, and tell him that I am here ready to wait on him. But Obadiah
replied, "What evil have I done to thee, that thou sendest me to one who
seeketh to kill thee, and hath sought over all the earth for thee? Or
was he so ignorant as not to know that the king had left no place
untouched unto which he had not sent persons to bring him back, in
order, if they could take him, to have him put to death?" For he told
him he was afraid lest God should appear to him again, and he should go
away into another place; and that when the king should send him for
Elijah, and he should miss of him, and not be able to find him any where
upon earth, he should be put to death. He desired him therefore to take
care of his preservation; and told him how diligently he had provided
for those of his own profession, and had saved a hundred prophets, when
Jezebel slew the rest of them, and had kept them concealed, and that
they had been sustained by him. But Elijah bade him fear nothing, but go
to the king; and he assured him upon oath that he would certainly show
himself to Ahab that very day.

5. So when Obadiah had informed the king that Elijah was there, Ahab met
him, and asked him, in anger, if he were the man that afflicted the
people of the Hebrews, and was the occasion of the drought they lay
under? But Elijah, without any flattery, said that he was himself the
man, he and his house, which brought such sad afflictions upon them, and
that by introducing strange gods into their country, and worshipping
them, and by leaving their own, who was the only true God, and having no
manner of regard to him. However, he bade him go his way, and gather
together all the people to him to Mount Carmel, with his own prophets,
and those of his wife, telling him how many there were of them, as also
the prophets of the groves, about four hundred in number. And as all the
men whom Ahab sent for ran away to the forenamed mountain, the prophet
Elijah stood in the midst of them, and said, "How long will you live
thus in uncertainty of mind and opinion?" He also exhorted them, that in
case they esteemed their own country God to be the true and the only
God, they would follow him and his commandments; but in case they
esteemed him to be nothing, but had an opinion of the strange gods, and
that they ought to worship them, his counsel was, that they should
follow them. And when the multitude made no answer to what he said,
Elijah desired that, for a trial of the power of the strange gods, and
of their own God, he, who was his only prophet, while they had four
hundred, might take a heifer and kill it as a sacrifice, and lay it upon
pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire, and that they should do the
same things, and call upon their own gods to set the wood on fire; for
if that were done, they would thence learn the nature of the true God.
This proposal pleased the people. So Elijah bade the prophets to choose
out a heifer first, and kill it, and to call on their gods. But when
there appeared no effect of the prayer or invocation of the prophets
upon their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and bade them call upon their
gods with a loud voice, for they might either be on a journey, or
asleep; and when these prophets had done so from morning till noon, and
cut themselves with swords and lances, 34 according to the customs of
their country, and he was about to offer his sacrifice, he bade [the
prophets] go away, but bade [the people] come near and observe what he
did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces of wood. So,
upon the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones, one for each
tribe of the people of the Hebrews, and built an altar with them, and
dug a very deep trench; and when he had laid the pieces of wood upon the
altar, and upon them had laid the pieces of the sacrifices, he ordered
them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain, and to pour it
upon the altar, till it ran over it, and till the trench was filled with
the water poured into it. When he had done this, he began to pray to
God, and to invocate him to make manifest his power to a people that had
already been in an error a long time; upon which words a fire came on a
sudden from heaven in the sight of the multitude, and fell upon the
altar, and consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was set on fire,
and the place was become dry.

6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down upon the ground, and
worshipped one God, and called him The great and the only true God; but
they called the others mere names, framed by the evil and vile opinions
of men. So they caught their prophets, and, at the command of Elijah,
slew them. Elijah also said to the king, that he should go to dinner
without any further concern, for that in a little time he would see God
send them rain. Accordingly Ahab went his way. But Elijah went up to the
highest top of Mount Carmel, and sat down upon the ground, and leaned
his head upon his knees, and bade his servant go up to a certain
elevated place, and look towards the sea, and when he should see a cloud
rising any where, he should give him notice of it, for till that time
the air had been clear. When the Servant had gone up, and had said many
times that he saw nothing, at the seventh time of his going up, he said
that he saw a small black thing in the sky, not larger than a man's
foot. When Elijah heard that, he sent to Ahab, and desired him to go
away to the city before the rain came down. So he came to the city
Jezreel; and in a little time the air was all obscured, and covered with
clouds, and a vehement storm of wind came upon the earth, and with it a
great deal of rain; and the prophet was under a Divine fury, and ran
along with the king's chariot unto Jezreel a city of Izar 35
[Issaachar].

7. When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, understood what signs Elijah had
wrought, and how he had slain her prophets, she was angry, and sent
messengers to him, and by them threatened to kill him, as he had
destroyed her prophets. At this Elijah was affrighted, and fled to the
city called Beersheba, which is situate at the utmost limits of the
country belonging to the tribe of Judah, towards the land of Edom; and
there he left his servant, and went away into the desert. He prayed also
that he might die, for that he was not better than his fathers, nor need
he be very desirous to live, when they were dead; and he lay and slept
under a certain tree; and when somebody awakened him, and he was risen
up, he found food set by him and water: so when he had eaten, and
recovered his strength by that his food, he came to that mountain which
is called Sinai, where it is related that Moses received his laws from
God; and finding there a certain hollow cave, he entered into it, and
continued to make his abode in it. But when a certain voice came to him,
but from whence he knew not, and asked him, why he was come thither, and
had left the city? he said, that because he had slain the prophets of
the foreign gods, and had persuaded the people that he alone whom they
had worshipped from the beginning was God, he was sought for by the
king's wife to be punished for so doing. And when he had heard another
voice, telling him that he should come out the next day into the open
air, and should thereby know what he was to do, he came out of the cave
the next day accordingly, When he both heard an earthquake, and saw the
bright splendor of a fire; and after a silence made, a Divine voice
exhorted him not to be disturbed with the circumstances he was in, for
that none of his enemies should have power over him. The voice also
commanded him to return home, and to ordain Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to
be king over their own multitude; and Hazael, of Damascus, to be over
the Syrians; and Elisha, of the city Abel, to be a prophet in his stead;
and that of the impious multitude, some should be slain by Hazael, and
others by Jehu. So Elijah, upon hearing this charge, returned into the
land of the Hebrews. And when he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
ploughing, and certain others with him, driving twelve yoke of oxen, he
came to him, and cast his own garment upon him; upon which Elisha began
to prophesy presently, and leaving his oxen, he followed Elijah. And
when he desired leave to salute his parents, Elijah gave him leave so to
do; and when he had taken his leave of them, he followed him, and became
the disciple and the servant of Elijah all the days of his life. And
thus have I despatched the affairs in which this prophet was concerned.

8. Now there was one Naboth, of the city Izar, [Jezreel,] who had a
field adjoining to that of the king: the king would have persuaded him
to sell him that his field, which lay so near to his own lands, at what
price he pleased, that he might join them together, and make them one
farm; and if he would not accept of money for it, he gave him leave to
choose any of his other fields in its stead. But Naboth said he would
not do so, but would keep the possession of that land of his own, which
he had by inheritance from his father. Upon this the king was grieved,
as if he had received an injury, when he could not get another man's
possession, and he would neither wash himself, nor take any food: and
when Jezebel asked him what it was that troubled him, and why he would
neither wash himself, nor eat either dinner or supper, he related to her
the perverseness of Naboth, and how, when he had made use of gentle
words to him, and such as were beneath the royal authority, he had been
affronted, and had not obtained what he desired. However, she persuaded
him not to be cast down at this accident, but to leave off his grief,
and return to the usual care of his body, for that she would take care
to have Naboth punished; and she immediately sent letters to the rulers
of the Israelites [Jezreelites] in Ahab's name, and commanded them to
fast and to assemble a congregation, and to set Naboth at the head of
them, because he was of an illustrious family, and to have three bold
men ready to bear witness that he had blasphemed God and the king, and
then to stone him, and slay him in that manner. Accordingly, when Naboth
had been thus testified against, as the queen had written to them, that
he had blasphemed against God and Ahab the king, she desired him to take
possession of Naboth's vineyard on free cost. So Ahab was glad at what
had been done, and rose up immediately from the bed whereon he lay to go
to see Naboth's vineyard; but God had great indignation at it, and sent
Elijah the prophet to the field of Naboth, to speak to Ahab, and to say
to him, that he had slain the true owner of that field unjustly. And as
soon as he came to him, and the king had said that he might do with him
what he pleased, [for he thought it a reproach to him to be thus caught
in his sin,] Elijah said, that in that very place in which the dead body
of Naboth was eaten by dogs both his own blood and that of his wife's
should be shed, and that all his family should perish, because he had
been so insolently wicked, and had slain a citizen unjustly, and
contrary to the laws of his country. Hereupon Ahab began to be sorry for
the things he had done, and to repent of them; and he put on sackcloth,
and went barefoot 36 and would not touch any food; he also confessed his
sins, and endeavored thus to appease God. But God said to the prophet,
that while Ahab was living he would put off the punishment of his
family, because he repented of those insolent crimes he had been guilty
of, but that still he would fulfill his threatening under Ahab's son;
which message the prophet delivered to the king.