It came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year. The prophet who was told to hide thyself (17:3) is now told, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab. Jesus speaks of the heaven shut up three years and six months (Luke 4:25), and James says it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months (James 5:17). As noted at 17:7, many suggest the third year counts from Elijah's arrival at Zarephath or some point after the drought began; the study names the difference and holds the explanations loosely.

And I will send rain upon the earth. The promise of rain is given before the contest on Carmel, not won by it. Elijah had said there would be no rain but according to my word (17:1); now it is plain that his word was always under the LORD's word. The rain Baal's worshippers looked to their god for will come from the LORD alone. Meanwhile there was a sore famine in Samaria (v. 2) — the drought had reached the capital of the king who brought Baal into Israel.

Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly (v. 3). His name is usually taken to mean servant of the LORD; the study offers the sense as likely, and does not assume he is the prophet of the book of Obadiah. Here we first learn that Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD — a persecution Kings has not yet described. At great risk Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water, in a famine, from inside the household of the king who was hunting them.

While Ahab's concern is for the horses and mules (v. 5), Obadiah meets Elijah and falls on his face. His fear is honest: Ahab has searched every nation for the prophet and took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not (v. 10); if the Spirit of the LORD carries Elijah away (v. 12; compare 2 Kings 2:16), Obadiah will die. He reminds Elijah of the hundred prophets (v. 13). Elijah answers with the oath of 17:1: As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day (v. 15). Faithfulness can be quiet and inside a hostile house.

Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Ahab blames the drought on the prophet who announced it. The word troubleth is the one Joshua used of Achan, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day (Joshua 7:25), and Jonathan used of his father, My father hath troubled the land (1 Samuel 14:29). It describes one who brings disaster on the community. In Ahab's eyes the man who names the sin is the problem, not the sin itself — a pattern as old as prophecy (compare Amos 7:10).

I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim (v. 18). Baalim is the plural, perhaps the many local forms under which Baal was honoured. Elijah then sets the terms: gather all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table (v. 19). The four hundred of the groves are not mentioned again in the chapter; the text does not say whether they came.

How long halt ye between two opinions? To halt is to limp. The Hebrew picture is often taken as hopping or limping between two branches or two paths, never walking straight on either; the study offers that sense as likely. Many note that the same Hebrew root appears in verse 26, where the prophets of Baal leaped upon the altar — the people limp between two gods, and Baal's prophets limp around his altar. If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. Elijah does not ask the people to add the LORD to their worship; he asks them to choose. And the people answered him not a word.

I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men (v. 22). Obadiah has just spoken of a hundred hidden prophets; Elijah seems to mean that he alone stands openly before the people — words he will repeat in despair at Horeb (19:10). The test is simple: two bullocks, no fire, and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God (vv. 23-24). Baal was honoured as a storm god, so fire from heaven was ground on which he was thought strong. The people answer, It is well spoken.

The prophets of Baal call from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered (v. 26). Then Elijah mocked them: perhaps he is talking (the Hebrew may mean musing, or occupied), or pursuing, or in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. This is the text's own polemic against Baal, sharpened to a point: a god who must be woken is no god. Psalm 115:5-6 says the same of idols: They have mouths, but they speak not... They have ears, but they hear not.

They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them (v. 28) — something the Law forbade Israel (Leviticus 19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1). Verse 29 sums up: there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. The scene is told to expose a powerless god in a contest the LORD Himself appointed. It is not a pattern for ridiculing the faith of people today; the New Testament asks believers to give a reason for their hope with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15). The prophets' wounds are also a sad picture of what false worship costs its servants.

Come near unto me... And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down (v. 30). There had been an altar of the LORD on Carmel, now in ruins, perhaps thrown down in the persecution (compare 19:10). Elijah rebuilds it with twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. The kingdom is divided, but Elijah builds for the whole people. Israel shall be thy name recalls God's word to Jacob (Genesis 35:10): the nation is reminded who named it and to whom it belongs.

He digs a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed (v. 32), lays out the bullock, and says, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood (v. 33). Then: Do it the second time... Do it the third time (v. 34) — four barrels, poured three times, until the water ran round about the altar and the trench was filled (v. 35). In a drought, water was costly. The text does not say where it came from; some suggest the sea below Carmel or a spring. The point is plain: no hidden fire, no trick.

At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice — the hour of the daily offering at the temple (compare Exodus 29:39), though Elijah is far from Jerusalem. After a morning and afternoon of frenzied crying, his prayer is short. He calls on the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, the God of the covenant fathers. He asks for three things to be known: that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Even the drenching of the altar was not Elijah's showmanship; he did it at thy word.

Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again (v. 37). The goal is not Elijah's vindication but the people's return. Malachi 4:6 would later say of the Elijah to come, he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and Luke 1:17 applies that hope to John the Baptist. James draws the lesson for ordinary believers: The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16), and he points to Elijah.

Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench (v. 38). Everything is consumed, even the stones and the water. When fire came from before the LORD at the first offerings of the tabernacle, the people shouted, and fell on their faces (Leviticus 9:24); so here they fell on their faces. The God who answers by fire has answered.

The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God. The confession is spoken twice in this one verse. It echoes Deuteronomy 4:35, the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him, and Solomon's prayer that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God (8:60). Many note that it also echoes Elijah's own name, usually taken to mean my God is the LORD. The people who answered him not a word (v. 21) have found their answer. Whether it would last, the next chapters will test.

Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape... and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. The study records this as the text does and does not soften it. The narrator sets it within the Law as Israel then held it: Deuteronomy 13 commands that a prophet who says Let us go after other gods (13:2) shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD (13:5), and Deuteronomy 17:2-5 deals with those who serve other gods. These prophets had led the nation into Baal worship, while Jezebel had slain the LORD's prophets (vv. 4, 13). The Kishon had seen judgment before (Judges 5:21).

This is a sobering scene, and it belongs to a particular moment in Israel's covenant history, under a law given to a nation. It is not offered as a pattern for anyone today. The New Testament gives the church no such sword: Jesus rebuked James and John when they wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village (Luke 9:54-55), said that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), and Paul wrote that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:4). Readers may grieve the deaths while taking seriously the text's verdict on worship that turns a people from the living God.

Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain (v. 41). Elijah hears the rain before anyone sees a cloud. Ahab goes to eat; Elijah goes to the top of Carmel, casts himself down, and puts his face between his knees (v. 42) — a posture of earnest, bowed prayer. He sends his servant to look toward the sea: There is nothing. Go again seven times (v. 43). At the seventh time comes a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. James says of this moment, he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain (James 5:18). God had promised rain (v. 1), and Elijah still prayed until it came.

The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel (v. 45). Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel (v. 46). The distance from Carmel to Jezreel is commonly reckoned at well over twenty kilometres, though it depends on where on the ridge the contest was held. Some see Elijah running ahead like a herald before the king, perhaps still hoping Ahab would turn. The day ends with rain on the land and the prophet at the gate of Jezebel's city.