﻿1 Kings.
Chapter 19.
Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 
Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me ever so severely if, by this time tomorrow, I have not made your life like the life of one of them.” 
When he saw this, he got up and fled for his life. He came to Beersheba in Judah and left his servant there. 
He himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, came to a broom bush, and sat beneath it. He asked to die, saying, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 
He lay down and slept beneath a broom bush. An angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 
He looked, and there by his head were a cake of bread baked on hot stones and a jug of water. He ate and drank, then lay down again. 
The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 
He got up, ate, and drank. In the strength of that food he traveled forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. 
There he entered the cave and spent the night. The word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 
He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. The Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.” 
He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” Then the LORD was passing by. A great, powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 
After the earthquake came fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. 
When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, went out, and stood at the entrance to the cave. A voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 
He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. The Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.” 
The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 
Anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 
Jehu will kill anyone who escapes Hazael’s sword, and Elisha will kill anyone who escapes Jehu’s sword. 
Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 
He departed from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were before him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak over him. 
Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.” He answered, “Go back, for what have I done to you?” 
Elisha turned back from following him, took the team of oxen, and slaughtered them. He used the oxen’s equipment as fuel to cook their meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him. 
