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| Chapter XLIII.
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Chapter XLIII.
In the time of his reign,
Ahab, the son of Ambri, was king of the ten tribes, impious above all
against God. For having taken in marriage Jezebel, the daughter of
Basa, king of Sidon, he erected an altar and groves to the idol Bahal,
and slew the prophets of God. At this time, Elijah the prophet by
prayer shut up heaven, that it should not give any rain to the earth,
and revealed that to the king, in order that he, in his impiety, might
know himself to be the cause of the evil. The waters of heaven,
therefore, being restrained, and since the whole country, burned up by
the heat of the sun, did not furnish food either for man or beast, the
prophet had even exposed himself to the side of perishing from hunger.
At that time, when he betook himself to the desert, he depended for
life on the ravens furnishing him with food, while a neighboring
rivulet furnished him with water, until it was dried up. Then, being
instructed by God, he went to the town of Saraptæ, and turned
aside to lodge with a widow-woman. And when, in his hunger, he begged
food from her, she complained that she had only a handful of meal and a
little oil, on the consumption of which she expected death along with
her children.317
| 317 “Cum
filiis”: after the Greek: the Hebrew text speaks of only one
son. | But when Elijah
promised in the words of God that neither should the meal lessen in the
barrel nor the oil in the vessel, the woman did not hesitate to believe
the prophet demanding faith, and obtained318
| 318 Such seems clearly
to be the meaning of the somewhat strange phrase, “promissorum
fidem consecuta est.” |
the fulfillment of what was promised, since by daily increase as
much
was added as was day by
day taken away. At the same time, Elijah restored to life the dead son
of the same widow. Then, by the command of God, he went to the king,
and having reproved his impiety, he ordered all the people to be
gathered together to himself. When these had hastily assembled, the
priests of the idols and of the groves to the number of about four
hundred and fifty, were also summoned. Then there arose a dispute
between them, Elijah setting forth the honor of God, while they upheld
their own superstitions. At length they agreed that a trial should be
made to this effect, that if fire sent down from heaven should consume
the slain victim of either of them, that religion should be accepted as
the true one which performed the miracle. Accordingly, the priests,
having slain a calf, began to call upon the idol Bahal; and, after
wasting their invocations to no purpose, they tacitly acknowledged the
helplessness of their God. Then Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry
aloud more vehemently, lest perchance he sleeps, and that thus you may
rouse him from the slumber in which he is sunk.” The wretched men
could do nothing but shudder and mutter to themselves, but still they
waited to see what Elijah would do. Well, he slew a calf and laid it
upon the altar, having first of all filled the sacred place with water;
and then, calling upon the name of the Lord, fire fell from heaven in
the sight of all, and consumed alike the water and the victim. Then
truly the people, casting themselves upon the earth, confessed God and
execrated the idols; while finally, by the command of Elijah, the
impious priests were seized, and, being brought down to the brook, were
there slain. The prophet followed the king as he returned from that
place; but as Jezebel, the wife of the king, was devising means for
taking his life, he retired to a more remote spot. There God addressed
him, telling him that there were still seven thousand men who had not
given themselves up to idols. That was to Elijah a marvelous statement,
for he had supposed that he himself was the only one who had kept free
from impiety.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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