In the third year of the drought, Elijah commands Ahab to gather the people on Mt. 17:24) The Climactic Demonstration: Who is God? “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth” (1 K. Faced with such a miracle the woman declares, After stretching himself three times over the child’s body YHWH heeds his call and the child is restored. Laying the boy on his own bed Elijah calls on YHWH to reverse the evil He has brought upon the widow. However, with the death of her son, the woman lays the blame squarely on the “man of God” Elijah. Elijah’s assurance that that the meal and oil will last until the end of the drought proves to be the case. On hearing his request for water and bread, the woman protests that she has only enough meal and oil to make a final meal for herself and her son before they die. Elijah is then dispatched to the north to Zarfet in Phoenicia, where a widow looks after him. YHWH instructs Elijah to hide in the wadi Kerit on the east side of the Jordan near Jericho. The prophet bursts onto the scene announcing to Ahab a drought. It is Ahab’s accommodation of his wife’s religion (erecting a temple and an altar to Baal in his capital Samaria, and making an asherah (a tree-like post symbolizing a fertility goddess), that places him at odds with YHWH and His prophet Elijah. The central theme of the Elijah narratives is his conflict with the monarch of the Northern Kingdom, Ahab, and his Phoenician born, Baal-worshipping wife Jezebel. He is characterized as a hairy man wearing a girdle of leather around his loins (2 K. He is neither a royal court nor sanctuary prophet and has gained a reputation for elusiveness, moving as the spirit of YHWH directs. He is introduced as the Tishbi from Gilead, a region to the east of the Jordan. Elusive ProphetĬonsidering the wealth of tradition that now accompanies the figure of Elijah in Jewish tradition, he occupies comparatively little biblical text.

Elisha then assumed the mantle and presided over the demise of the Omride dynasty and the accession of Jehu (c.842 BCE). Elijah’s activity spanned the reigns of Ahab (reigned c. The stories of the prophet Elijah and his protégé Elisha are found at the end of First Kings and the beginning of Second Kings (1 Kings 17-2 Kings 13). My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate

Bible study elijah elisha