Study Desk

So Ach'av sent to all the children of Yisra'el, and gathered the prophets together to Mount Karmel.

It was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the [evening] offering; but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any who regarded.

So Ach'av went up to eat and to drink. Eliyah went up to the top of Karmel; and he bowed himself down on the eretz, and put his face between his knees.

Then Izevel send a messenger to Eliyah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don't make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

It was so, when Eliyah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, there came a voice to him, and said, What are you doing here, Eliyah?

So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shafat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke [of oxen] before him, and he with the twelfth: and Eliyah passed over to him, and cast his mantle on him.

Ben-Hadad sent to him, and said, The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Shomron shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.

So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.

and number you an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. He listened to their voice, and did so.

They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Yisra'el killed of the Aram one hundred thousand footmen in one day.

So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and [put] ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Yisra'el, and said, Your servant Ben-Hadad says, please let me live. He said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother.

[Ben-Hadad] said to him, The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you shall make streets for you in Dammesek, as my father made in Shomron. I, [said Ach'av], will let you go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and let him go.

So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes.

As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. The king of Yisra'el said to him, So shall your judgment be; yourself have decided it.

But Izevel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?

So she wrote letters in Ach'av's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the Zakenim and to the nobles who were in his city, [and] who lived with Navot.

The king of Yisra'el said to Yehoshafat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Mikhayahu the son of Yimlah: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Yehoshafat said, "Don't let the king say so."

All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramot-Gil`ad, and prosper; for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king.

The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You shall entice him, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.'

So the king of Yisra'el and Yehoshafat the king of Yehudah went up to Ramot-Gil`ad.