Elijah is the prophet who brings God’s word to Ahab, king of northern Israel. First Kings introduces him as a Tishbite living in Gilead. Ahab has married Jezebel, a daughter of the king of Sidon, and worships Baal. In Samaria he builds a temple and altar for Baal.
Standing before Ahab, Elijah swears by the living God whom he serves. He declares that neither dew nor rain will fall during the coming years except according to his word.
God tells Elijah to travel east and hide beside the brook Cherith near the Jordan. Elijah drinks from the brook, and ravens bring him bread and meat each morning and evening. After some time without rain, the brook dries up.
God sends Elijah to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon. At the city gate he meets a widow gathering sticks and asks for water and bread. She says that she has only a handful of meal and a little oil. She plans to prepare one last meal for herself and her son, after which they will die.
Elijah asks her to make a small cake for him first and then prepare food for herself and her son. He conveys God’s promise that the meal and oil will not run out until God sends rain. The widow does as he says, and she, her household, and Elijah have food for many days.
Later, the widow’s son becomes ill and stops breathing. She asks whether Elijah has come to remind her of her sin and kill her son. Elijah takes the child to the room where he is staying and lays him on his bed.
Elijah cries to God about the boy’s death, stretches himself over the child three times, and asks for his life to return. God hears him, and the child revives. When Elijah returns the boy to his mother, she says that she now knows he is a man of God and that the word he speaks is true.
First Kings 18 places the next scene in the third year, when God sends Elijah back to Ahab and promises rain. The famine in Samaria is severe. Ahab and his palace administrator Obadiah divide the land between them to search for grass that could keep the horses and mules alive. When Jezebel was killing God’s prophets, Obadiah hid one hundred of them in caves, fifty to a cave, and supplied bread and water.
Obadiah meets Elijah on the road. He says that if Elijah disappears after he takes the news to Ahab, the king will kill him. Elijah promises to appear before Ahab that day. Ahab accuses Elijah of troubling Israel, but Elijah answers that the king and his household have abandoned God’s commands and followed Baal.
Elijah asks Ahab to gather Israel, four hundred fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of Asherah at Mount Carmel. He asks the assembled people whom they will follow, God or Baal, but they give no answer. He proposes that each side prepare a bull without lighting a fire and call on its god. The one who answers with fire will be acknowledged as God.
The prophets of Baal prepare their offering first and call on Baal from morning onward. They leap around the altar and cut themselves with knives and lances as they call more loudly. They continue until the time of the evening offering, but no answer comes.
Elijah rebuilds God’s ruined altar with twelve stones, corresponding to Israel’s tribes. After arranging the wood and offering, he has four jars of water poured over them three times. Water runs around the altar and fills the trench beside it.
Elijah prays, and God’s fire consumes the offering, wood, stones, dust, and water in the trench. The people fall on their faces and acknowledge God. Elijah has the prophets of Baal seized, takes them to the brook Kishon, and kills them there.
Elijah tells Ahab that heavy rain is coming and climbs to the top of Carmel. Bowed down to the ground, he sends his servant to look toward the sea. After seeing nothing, the servant reports on the seventh visit that a small cloud, like a human hand, is rising.
Elijah sends word that Ahab should prepare to leave before the rain stops him. The sky darkens with clouds and wind, and heavy rain falls. Ahab rides toward Jezreel. With God’s hand upon him, Elijah gathers up his clothing and runs ahead of the king to the city’s entrance.
After Ahab tells Jezebel what happened at Carmel, she threatens to kill Elijah by the same time the next day. He flees for his life to Beersheba in Judah, leaves his servant there, and walks another day into the wilderness. Under a juniper tree, he asks God to take his life and then falls asleep.
An angel wakes Elijah, and he finds baked bread and water beside his head. He eats, drinks, and lies down again. The angel wakes him a second time and tells him to eat for the journey ahead. Strengthened by the food, he travels forty days and nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
In a cave at Horeb, Elijah tells God that he alone is left and that people are seeking his life. God tells him to stand on the mountain. A powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire pass, but God is not in them. Afterward comes a still small voice. Elijah covers his face with his mantle, stands at the cave’s entrance, and repeats his complaint.
God sends Elijah back with instructions to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as the prophet to succeed him. God also says that he has reserved seven thousand people in Israel who have neither bowed to Baal nor kissed him.
Elijah finds Elisha son of Shaphat plowing with twelve pairs of oxen. Elisha is driving the last pair. Elijah puts his mantle on him, and Elisha asks to say farewell to his parents before following. He kills a pair of oxen, uses the equipment as fuel to cook their meat, and feeds the people. Then he follows Elijah and serves him.
Ahab wants Naboth’s vineyard near his palace, but Naboth refuses to surrender land inherited from his ancestors. Jezebel writes letters in Ahab’s name, seals them with his seal, and arranges for two men to accuse Naboth falsely. The city’s elders and nobles carry out the instructions, and Naboth is taken outside the city and stoned to death.
When Ahab goes to take possession of the vineyard, God sends Elijah to meet him. Elijah confronts him for killing a man and taking his property, and announces judgment on Ahab’s household and Jezebel. Ahab calls Elijah his enemy.
After hearing the judgment, Ahab tears his clothes, wears sackcloth, and fasts. God sees him humble himself and tells Elijah that the disaster on Ahab’s house will come in his son’s time rather than his own.
Ahab’s son Ahaziah falls through the lattice of an upper room and is injured. He sends messengers to ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether he will recover. Elijah meets them and delivers God’s question about seeking another god when there is a God in Israel, together with the warning that the king will die. When the messengers describe a hairy man with a leather belt, Ahaziah recognizes Elijah.
The first two captains sent by the king, each with fifty men, die when fire falls from the sky. The third captain kneels and pleads for his life and those of his men. God’s angel tells Elijah to go down with him. Elijah goes to the king and repeats the message, and Ahaziah dies as foretold.
When God is about to take Elijah up to heaven, Elijah and Elisha leave Gilgal. At each stage toward Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan, Elijah asks Elisha to stay behind. Elisha refuses to leave him. The groups of prophets in Bethel and Jericho also know that God will take Elijah away that day.
At the Jordan, Elijah rolls up his mantle and strikes the water. It divides, and the two cross on dry ground. Asked what he wants before Elijah is taken, Elisha requests a double portion of his spirit. Elijah says that it will be granted if Elisha sees him being taken, and that it will not be granted if he does not.
As they walk and talk, a chariot and horses of fire separate them. Elijah goes up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha sees him go, cries out, and tears his own clothes in two. Then he picks up the mantle that has fallen from Elijah.
Elisha strikes the Jordan with the mantle and crosses when the water divides again. The prophets watching from Jericho say that Elijah’s spirit rests on him. They want to send fifty men to search for Elijah. Elisha initially refuses but agrees after repeated requests. The men search for three days and return without finding him.
Much later, the Gospels describe Elijah appearing beside Jesus with Moses. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain, where his appearance changes before them. Moses and Elijah appear and talk with him. Luke says that they discuss the departure Jesus is about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
While Peter offers to build three shelters, a cloud covers them. In Matthew’s account, the voice from the cloud identifies Jesus as the beloved Son and tells the disciples to listen to him. They fall down in fear. Jesus approaches, touches them, and tells them to rise. When they look up, they see Jesus alone.
As they descend, Jesus tells the disciples not to report what they have seen until he has risen from the dead. They ask why the scribes say that Elijah must come first. Jesus answers that Elijah has already come, but people did not recognize him. The disciples understand that he is speaking about John the Baptizer.