Elijah- Hebrew/Jewish FigureMortal"The Prophet"

The Tishbite

Elijah appears in 1 Kings without genealogy or call narrative. One verse: "Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.'" A man from Gilead confronting the king of Israel with a drought. No explanation of where he came from or how he obtained such authority.

He lived during the reign of Ahab and his Phoenician queen Jezebel, who promoted the worship of Baal and Asherah in Israel. Elijah's quarrel was with all of it.

Fed by Ravens

After pronouncing the drought, Elijah fled east to the Wadi Cherith. Ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. When the brook dried, God sent him to Zarephath, in Phoenician territory, Jezebel's own homeland. A widow there was gathering sticks to cook the last meal she and her son would eat before starving. Elijah asked her for bread. She gave it. Her jar of flour and jug of oil did not run empty until the drought ended.

When the widow's son died, Elijah stretched himself over the child three times and prayed. The boy breathed again. It was the first resurrection recorded in Scripture.

The Contest on Mount Carmel

In the third year of drought, Elijah challenged Ahab to gather the 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. Before all Israel he posed the question: "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people said nothing.

Two bulls, two altars, no fire. The god who answered by fire would be acknowledged as the true God. The prophets of Baal went first. From morning to noon they called on their deity, danced around the altar, cut themselves with swords and lances. Nothing happened. Elijah mocked them: "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."

At the evening sacrifice, Elijah rebuilt the altar of the Lord with twelve stones. He arranged the wood, cut the bull, and laid it on the altar. Then he ordered the sacrifice drenched with water three times, filling a trench around the altar. In the middle of a three-year drought, he made fire as difficult as possible.

He prayed. The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and licked up the water in the trench. The people fell on their faces. At Elijah's command they seized the prophets of Baal, and he slaughtered them at the brook Kishon. Then the rain came.

The Still Small Voice

Jezebel swore to kill him. The prophet who had faced 450 priests of Baal fled from one woman's threat. He walked a day into the wilderness, sat under a broom tree, and asked God to take his life.

An angel fed him and sent him forty days south to Horeb, the mountain of God. He lodged in a cave. God asked what he was doing there. Elijah said he had been zealous for the Lord, but Israel had forsaken the covenant, torn down the altars, killed the prophets. "I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life."

God told him to stand on the mountain. A wind tore the rocks apart. The Lord was not in the wind. An earthquake shook the ground. The Lord was not in the earthquake. A fire swept through. The Lord was not in the fire. Then came a qol demamah daqqah: a still small voice, a sound of sheer silence. Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle and went out.

He was not alone. God had reserved seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed to Baal.

Naboth's Vineyard

Ahab coveted the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Naboth refused to sell: "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." Jezebel arranged false witnesses to accuse Naboth of blasphemy. He was stoned to death. Ahab took the vineyard.

God sent Elijah to meet the king among the vines: "Have you killed and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood." Ahab's answer: "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Elijah pronounced doom on Ahab's dynasty. When Ahab tore his robes and fasted, God delayed the punishment to the next generation. He did not revoke it.

Elijah and Ahaziah

Ahab's son Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper chamber and sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, god of Ekron, whether he would recover. Elijah intercepted them: "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub?" He declared the king would die.

Ahaziah sent a captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him. Elijah sat on a hilltop and called down fire from heaven. A second company met the same fate. The third captain came on his knees, begging for mercy. Elijah went with him.

The Ascent to Heaven

Elijah is one of two biblical figures, along with Enoch, who did not die. In 2 Kings 2, he made his final journey with his successor Elisha. Three times Elijah tried to dismiss him. Three times Elisha refused to leave. They crossed the Jordan together: Elijah struck the water with his rolled mantle and it parted.

As they walked on, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated them. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha cried out: "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" Elijah's mantle fell. Elisha picked it up.

The prophet Malachi, in the closing words of the Hebrew Bible, announced that God would send Elijah back before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

The Cup and the Chair

Every Passover Seder includes a cup of wine set aside for Elijah and a door opened to welcome him. At every circumcision, a chair is reserved for him. At the close of Shabbat, the havdalah ceremony includes a song longing for his arrival to announce the Messiah.

In Jewish legend, Elijah wanders the earth in disguise: a beggar, a stranger, a traveler in need. He tests the hospitality of those he meets, rewards the generous, rebukes the hardhearted. Having never died, he continues to live. Having ascended, he can still descend. The door stays open.