Elijah first appears while Ahab rules the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahab had married Jezebel, a daughter of the king of Sidon, and built a temple and altar for Baal in Samaria. Into that setting came Elijah the Tishbite, a resident of Gilead, who suddenly stood before the king. He declared by the life of the God of Israel, whom he served, that neither dew nor rain would fall for the next several years except at his word. Scripture does not identify Elijah’s parents, describe his childhood, or tell when he was called as a prophet. His recorded life begins with this confrontation, as he announces a drought to a king who worships another god.
After delivering the message, Elijah hid beside the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan. He drank from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and evening. With no rain on the land, the brook eventually dried up. Elijah was then sent to Zarephath, a town belonging to Sidon. At the city gate he met a widow gathering sticks and asked her for water and bread. She had only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. She expected to prepare one final meal for herself and her son, with nothing left afterward. Elijah told her that the flour and oil would not run out until rain returned. The widow prepared the food as he said, and her household and Elijah continued to eat during the drought.
While Elijah stayed in the house, the widow’s son became so ill that he stopped breathing. The widow challenged Elijah in the face of her son’s death. Elijah carried the boy to the upstairs room where he was staying and laid him on the bed. He cried out to God, asking why this calamity had come upon the widow who had received him. Then he stretched himself over the child three times and pleaded for the boy’s life to return. When the child revived, Elijah carried him downstairs and placed him in his mother’s arms. She answered that she now knew Elijah was a man of God and that the word he spoke was true. The prophet who had announced a national drought had also lived in a foreign widow’s home, where food did not fail and a dead son was returned to his mother.
In the third year of the drought, Elijah was told to appear before Ahab again. The famine in Samaria was severe, and Ahab and his palace administrator Obadiah had divided the land between them to search for water and grass that might keep the horses and mules alive. Obadiah had hidden one hundred of God’s prophets in two caves when Jezebel was killing them, supplying the prophets with food and water. When Obadiah met Elijah on the road, he feared that Elijah might disappear after he carried the news to Ahab, leaving Obadiah to be killed. Elijah promised that he would present himself to the king that day. Ahab accused Elijah of bringing trouble on Israel, but Elijah answered that Ahab and his household had abandoned God’s commands and followed the Baals.
Elijah told Ahab to gather Israel and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He asked the people how long they would remain divided between God and Baal, but they gave him no answer. Elijah proposed that each side prepare a bull on wood without lighting a fire and call on its god. The one who answered with fire would be recognized as God. The prophets of Baal called out from morning beyond the time of the afternoon sacrifice. They danced around the altar and cut themselves, but no answer came. Elijah repaired God’s broken altar with twelve stones and repeatedly poured water over the offering and wood. When he prayed, fire fell and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, the soil, and the water in the trench. The people fell to the ground. At Elijah’s command they seized the prophets of Baal, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them. The account preserves both the public victory on Carmel and the deaths that followed it.
Elijah told Ahab that heavy rain was coming and climbed to the top of Carmel. He bent down to the ground in prayer and repeatedly sent his servant to look toward the sea. Six times the servant saw nothing. On the seventh, he reported a cloud as small as a human hand rising from the sea. Elijah sent word that Ahab should leave before the rain stopped him. The sky soon darkened with clouds, the wind rose, and heavy rain fell. Ahab rode his chariot toward Jezreel, while Elijah gathered up his clothing and ran ahead of him to the entrance of the city. The drought Elijah had announced in his first recorded scene had ended.
When Ahab told Jezebel what had happened on Carmel, she sent word that she intended to kill Elijah by the next day. Elijah fled for his life to Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there and walked another day into the wilderness. Sitting under a broom tree, he said he had had enough and asked God to let him die. The prophet who had stood before a crowd on Carmel now lay alone and fell asleep in the wilderness. An angel woke him and gave him bread and water. After Elijah slept again, the angel returned a second time and told him to eat because the journey was too much for him. Strengthened by that food, Elijah traveled forty days and nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Inside a cave at Horeb, Elijah said that he alone was left and that people were trying to take his life. God told him to stand on the mountain. A wind powerful enough to tear at the mountains passed, but God was not in the wind. God was not in the earthquake or the fire that followed either. After the fire came a low, quiet sound. Elijah covered his face with his mantle and stood at the mouth of the cave. When asked again why he was there, he repeated his account of his zeal and danger. God sent him back with instructions concerning Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as the prophet who would succeed him. He also told Elijah that seven thousand people in Israel had not bowed to Baal.
Elijah found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field. Twelve pairs of oxen were ahead of him, and Elisha was driving the last pair. Without a recorded explanation, Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha. Elisha left the oxen, ran after him, and asked to say farewell to his parents before following. He slaughtered a pair of oxen, used the wooden plowing equipment as fuel, and gave the cooked meat to the people. Then he followed Elijah and served him. After Elijah had said at Horeb that he alone remained, another man now traveled beside him and prepared to continue his work.
The conflict between Ahab and Elijah continued at Naboth’s vineyard. Ahab wanted the vineyard beside his palace, but Naboth refused to surrender land inherited from his ancestors. Jezebel used Ahab’s name and seal to arrange false accusations against Naboth, who was taken outside the city and stoned to death. When Ahab went down to claim the vineyard, Elijah met him there. He confronted the king for killing a man and taking his land, then announced judgment on Ahab’s household. Ahab called Elijah his enemy. After hearing the judgment, however, he tore his clothes, wore sackcloth, fasted, and humbled himself. God told Elijah that because Ahab had humbled himself, the announced disaster would not come during Ahab’s lifetime.
Ahab’s son Ahaziah later became king. After falling through the lattice of an upper room, Ahaziah sent messengers to ask Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover. Elijah intercepted them and asked whether the king was consulting another god because there was no God in Israel. He said Ahaziah would never rise from his bed and would die. From the messengers’ description of a man in a hairy garment with a leather belt, the king recognized Elijah. The first and second captains sent to bring him down, together with fifty men under each, died when fire fell from heaven at Elijah’s word. A third captain knelt before Elijah and pleaded for his own life and the lives of his men. Elijah went with him to the king and delivered the same message in person. Ahaziah died as Elijah had said.
As the time for Elijah’s departure drew near, Elisha traveled with him from Gilgal. At each stage toward Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan, Elijah told Elisha that he could stay behind. Elisha answered each time that he would not leave his master. Groups of prophets in Bethel and Jericho also knew that Elijah would be taken away that day. At the Jordan, Elijah rolled up his mantle and struck the water. The river divided, and the two men crossed on dry ground. Elijah asked what he could do for Elisha before being taken away. Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah said that the request would be granted if Elisha saw him as he was taken.
As the two walked and talked, a chariot and horses of fire appeared and separated them. Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw him go, tore his own garment in two, and picked up the mantle that had fallen from Elijah. On his return he struck the Jordan with the mantle, and the water divided again. The prophets from Jericho who had watched from a distance said that Elijah’s spirit now rested on Elisha. They sent fifty men to search for Elijah, but after three days the searchers had found him on no mountain or in any valley. Kings does not narrate Elijah’s death or burial. His final journey ends with Elisha watching him go up, then carrying back both the fallen mantle and the work he was to continue.
Much later, Elijah appears once more in the Gospels. Jesus led Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, where his appearance changed before them. Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with him. Luke says that they spoke about the departure Jesus was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. While Peter offered to build three shelters, a bright cloud covered them, and the disciples fell down in fear at the voice that came from the cloud. Jesus touched them and told them to rise. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. This is the Bible’s last scene in which Elijah himself appears. The Gospels do not explain where Elijah went after the disciples saw Jesus standing alone.