1 Kings 18:31

Easy-to-Read Version

Elijah found twelve stones. There was one stone for each of the twelve tribes. These twelve tribes were named for the twelve sons of Jacob, the man who the Lord had named Israel.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Elijah took twelve stones—according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel will be your name”—

Hebrew Names Version
Eliyah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Ya`akov, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Yisra'el shall be your name.

King James Version
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:

English Standard Version
Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, "Israel shall be your name,"

New Century Version
He took twelve stones, one stone for each of the twelve tribes, the number of Jacob's sons. (The Lord changed Jacob's name to Israel.)

New English Translation
Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes that descended from Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, "Israel will be your new name."

Amplified Bible
Then Elijah took twelve stones in accordance with the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name."

New American Standard Bible
Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name."

Geneva Bible (1587)
And Eliiah tooke twelue stones, according to the nomber of the tribes of the sonnes of Iaakob, (vnto whome the worde of the Lord came, saying, Israel shalbe thy name)

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name."

Contemporary English Version
Then he used twelve stones to build an altar in honor of the Lord . Each stone stood for one of the tribes of Israel, which was the name the Lord had given to their ancestor Jacob. Elijah dug a ditch around the altar, large enough to hold about thirteen quarts.

Complete Jewish Bible
Eliyahu took twelve stones, in keeping with the number of tribes of the sons of Ya‘akov, to whom the word of Adonai had come, saying, "Your name is to be Isra'el."

Darby Translation
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Jehovah came saying, Israel shall be thy name;

George Lamsa Translation
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be your name;

Good News Translation
He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel.

Lexham English Bible
Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of God came, saying, "Israel shall be your name."

Literal Translation
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Word of Jehovah came, saying, Israel shall be your name.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
& toke twolue stones acordinge to the nombre of ye trybes of the childre of Iacob (vnto whom the worde of the LORDE spake, and sayde: Thy name shal be Israel)

American Standard Version
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of Jehovah came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.

Bible in Basic English
And Elijah took twelve stones, the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, Israel will be your name:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Elias toke twelue stones, according to the number of the twelue tribes of the sonnes of Iacob, vnto whom the word of the Lorde came, saying: Israel shalbe thy name.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying: 'Israel shall be thy name.'

King James Version (1611)
And Eliiah tooke twelue stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sonnes of Iacob, vnto whome the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall bee thy name.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Eliu took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, as the Lord spoke to him, saying, Israel shall be thy name.

English Revised Version
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.

Berean Standard Bible
And Elijah took twelve stones-one for each tribe of Jacob's descendants to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, "Israel shall be your name."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he took twelue stonys, bi the noumbre of lynagis of sones of Jacob, to which Jacob the word of the Lord was maad, and seide, Israel schal be thi name.

Young's Literal Translation
and Elijah taketh twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of Jehovah was, saying, `Israel is thy name;'

Update Bible Version
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, Israel shall be your name.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:

World English Bible
Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, Israel shall be your name.

New King James Version
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name." Genesis 32:28">[fn]

New Living Translation
He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel,

New Life Bible
Then Elijah took twelve stones, by the number of the families of Jacob's sons. The word of the Lord had come to Jacob's sons, saying, "Israel will be your name."

New Revised Standard
Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, "Israel shall be your name";

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
unto whom the word of Yahweh came, saying - Israel, shall be thy name;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord came, saying: Israel shall be thy name.

Revised Standard Version
Eli'jah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, "Israel shall be your name";

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name."

Contextual Overview

²¹ Elijah came to all the people and said, "You must decide what you are going to do. How long will you keep jumping from one side to the other? If the Lord is the true God, follow him. But if Baal is the true God, then follow him!" The people said nothing. ²² So Elijah said, "I am the only prophet of the Lord here, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. ²³ So bring us two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal have one bull. Let them kill it, cut it into pieces, and then put the meat on the wood. But don't start the fire. I will do the same with the other bull, and I will not start the fire either. ²⁴ Prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord . Whichever god answers the prayer and starts the fire is the true God." All the people agreed that this was a good idea. ²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "There are many of you, so you go first. Choose a bull and prepare it, but don't start your fire." ²⁶ So the prophets took the bull that was given to them and prepared it. They started praying to Baal and prayed until noon. They said, "Baal, please answer us!" But there was no sound. No one answered. Then they began jumping around on the altar they had built. ²⁷ At noon Elijah began to make fun of them. He said, "If Baal really is a god, maybe you should pray louder! Maybe he is busy. Maybe he is thinking about something, or maybe he stepped out for a moment! He could be sleeping! Maybe you should pray louder and wake him up!" ²⁸ So the prophets prayed louder. They cut themselves with swords and spears. (This was the way they worshiped.) They cut themselves until they were bleeding all over. ²⁹ The afternoon passed but the fire still had not started. The prophets were out of control and continued to act this way until the time came for the evening sacrifice. But nothing happened—there was no answer from Baal. There was no sound. There was no one listening. ³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, "Now come here." So they gathered around Elijah. The Lord 's altar had been torn down, so Elijah repaired it.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

twelve stones: Exodus 24:4, Joshua 4:3, Joshua 4:4, Joshua 4:20, Ezra 6:17, Jeremiah 31:1, Ezekiel 37:16-22, Ezekiel 47:13, Ephesians 2:20, Ephesians 4:4-6, Revelation 7:4-8, Revelation 21:12

saying: Genesis 32:28, Genesis 33:20, Genesis 35:10, 2 Kings 17:34, Isaiah 48:1

Reciprocal: Genesis 49:28 - every one Exodus 28:21 - according to the twelve Leviticus 24:5 - General Deuteronomy 27:5 - And there Joshua 4:9 - set up twelve Joshua 8:31 - altar Job 1:5 - according Matthew 19:28 - the twelve Romans 11:3 - digged James 1:1 - to

Cross-References

Genesis 18:20
Then the Lord said, "I have heard many times that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are very evil.

Genesis 18:22
So the men turned and started walking toward Sodom while Abraham stood there before the Lord .

Genesis 18:27
Then Abraham said, "Compared to you, Lord, I am only dust and ashes. But let me bother you again and ask you this question.

Matthew 7:7
"Continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you.

Matthew 7:11
You people are so bad, but you still know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him.

Luke 11:8
I tell you, maybe friendship is not enough to make him get up to give you the bread. But he will surely get up to give you what you need if you continue to ask.

Luke 18:1
Then Jesus taught the followers that they should always pray and never lose hope. He used this story to teach them:

Ephesians 6:18
Pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers, and ask for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready. Never give up. Always pray for all of God's people.

Hebrews 4:16
With Jesus as our high priest, we can feel free to come before God's throne where there is grace. There we receive mercy and kindness to help us when we need it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,.... Which he might very easily come at from the mountain:

unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name, which signifies one that has power with God, as Jacob had, when the word came to him to make a change in his name at Penuel, Genesis 32:28, and as Elijah hoped and believed he should have at this time, being a prophet, and a worshipper of Israel's God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 31. Took twelve stones — He did this to show that all the twelve tribes of Israel should be joined in the worship of Jehovah.