1Ki 17:1-19; 2Ki 1:1-2. predicts drought, 1Ki 17:1; fed by ravens, 1Ki 17:2-7; fed by the widow of Zarephath, 1Ki 17:8-16; revives the widow’s son, 1Ki 17:17-24; returns to Ahab, 1Ki 18:1-19; Elijah and the prophets of Baal, 1Ki 18:20-40; pray for rain, 1Ki 18:41-46; flee to Horeb, 1Ki 19:1-8; hear the voice of God, 1Ki 19:9-18; calls Elisha, 1Ki 19:19-21; rebukes Ahab, 1Ki 21:17-29; calls for fire to fall from heaven, 2Ki 1:3-16; caught up to heaven, 2Ki 2:1-11.
Mal 4:5 I send you the prophet E, before he comes
Mat 11:14 and if .. he is the E that was to come
Matt 16:14; Mar 8:28; Luk 9:19 others, E.. or one of the prophets
Matt 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luk 9:30 Moses and E appeared talking to him
Matt 17:12; Mar 9:13 but I tell you that E has already come
Matt 27:47; Mar 15:35 they said, to the .. AE call this one
Mar 6:15; Luk 9:8 others said: It is E. And others
Luk 1:17 will go before him with the spirit .. of E
Luk 9:54 let fire come down from heaven, as E did
Joh 1:21 they asked him.. Are you E? He said no
Rom 11:2 or do you not know what the Scripture says of E
Jam 5:17 E was a man subject to passions..and he prayed
Elijah (Heb. ‘Kliyyâh, “God is Yahweh” or “my God is Yahweh”; Ac. Ilu-yâu; Gr. Â lias). 1. God’s special messenger to the northern kingdom of Israel during the great apostasy under Ahab (c 874-853 BC) and Jezebel, when Baal worship had virtually replaced the worship of the true God. He is identified only as a Tishbite* (1Ki 17:1). As a man of great faith and daring zeal for God. Elijah easily ranks among the greatest prophets. The high esteem in which he has been held by Jews in later centuries is evidenced by the popular expectation, based on the prediction of Mal 4:5, 6, that the prophet would return to earth to announce the imminent appearance of the Messiah (Matt. 17:10-12). Jesus identified the ministry of John the Baptist with the one he was foretold by Malachi, after declaring that there was no one greater than John (Matt 11:11, 14). As far as is known, Elijah was the only person, with the exception of Enoch, honored by translation to heaven without seeing death (2Ki 2:11, 12). He was also chosen to accompany Moses, the great lawgiver, in the transfiguration of Christ (Mat 17:3). When Ahab began to reign, little more than half a century had passed since the death of Solomon and the division of the kingdom; since then Israel, the northern kingdom, had rapidly fallen into apostasy. But Ahab “did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all that reigned before him,” because he married Jezebel, the daughter of a Phoenician king, and adopted her religion and became a worshiper of Baal ( 1Ki 16:30, 31). Not only that, but he built a temple for him in Samaria (vs 32, 33), and thus “Ahab did more than all the kings of Israel that reigned before him, to provoke the wrath of the Lord” (v 33). Such were the conditions under which God called Elijah to visit Ahab in court and announce a severe drought of indefinite duration as a sobering punishment (17:1). The prophet was then instructed to flee for his safety to the Brook Cherith,* a seasonal tributary of the Jordan River (vs 2, 3), where he was fed for a time with miraculously provided food (vs 4-6 ). When the brook dried up, Elijah was instructed to leave Israel and find refuge in Zarephath* (figs. 451, 517), a Sidonian town (Luk 4:26). There God performed a new miracle to sustain him (1 Kings 17: 7-16) and by means of it he resurrected the son of the widow whose hospitality had provided him with a temporary refuge (vs 17-24). After 3 1/2 years (Luk 4: 25, 26), during which Ahab had not ceased in his efforts to find the prophet and ask him to account for the famine that became very severe (1Ki 18: 2-6 , 10), God indicated to Elijah that he had to appear once more in the court of Ahab (vs 1, 2). The intensity of the hunger and the seriousness with which Ahab viewed the situation are reflected in the fearful reaction of Obadiah, the official who managed Ahab’s household, before whom Elijah appeared (vs 7-14). Ahab’s initial charge upon meeting Elijah, “Are you he who troubles Israel?”, was quickly silenced by the divine accusation that Ahab himself was to blame for the nation’s misfortune, and by the command that the The king will appear immediately on Mount Carmel with all the prophets of Baal and Asherah (1Ki 18: 17-19). On Mount Carmel a dramatic test was made to see if Baal or Yahweh was the true God, so that the king himself and the people could make a decision on the matter (vs 20-40). Baal’s prophets had the 1st opportunity to demonstrate the power of his god, asking him to call down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice that had been offered to him (vs 22-29), but Baal did not respond. Then Elijah repaired the altar of Jehovah that lay in ruins, put a sacrifice on the altar, doused everything with water, and then called on God to vindicate his name. The Lord responded by sending fire that consumed the sacrifice, the altar, and the water (vs 30-38). The people recognized that Jehovah was the true God, and, at Elijah’s command, they killed all 369 the prophets of Baal (vs 39, 40). Then, to show that the drought had been a divine punishment on the land, and as a consequence of the people’s admission that Jehovah was the true God, an abundant rain fell (vs 41-46). Angered by the events, Jezebel threatened the prophet’s life, with the result that Elijah fled south to the Sinai desert, where he stayed in a cave; him once again he was miraculously sustained (1Ki 19:1-9). When Jehovah called him to account for his shameful flight in the face of Jezebel’s threat, Elijah protested that he was the only one left faithful to God, and that right now his life was in danger (vs 10-14). God tactfully rebuked him and assigned him new tasks: to anoint Jehu as king of Israel in place of Ahab, Hazael as a whip for Israel because of his apostasy, and Elisha as his own successor ( vs 15-21). After an unspecified time, during which Ahab and Jezebel murdered Naboth to get his portion of the land he had inherited, Elijah went to meet him just as he was about to take possession of Naboth’s inheritance, and announced the fate that awaited the king, Jezebel and the entire royal family because of their apostasy and impenitence (cp 21). When Ahab died, his son Ahaziah briefly succeeded to the throne (22:40). Sick, he appealed to Baal of Ekron, but his messengers met Elijah, who directed them to return to his mistress with the announcement that he would die (2Ki 1: 1-4). Ahaziah sent 3 companies of soldiers to arrest the prophet. The first 2 were miraculously consumed by fire, but the last one was not, because its leader presented himself submissively before Elijah (vs 5-16). Shortly after this event, Elijah’s ministry came to an end and he was translated into heaven (2:1-11). Elisha, an eyewitness to the event, was endowed with the power and authority that Elijah had had and was confirmed in the prophetic role (vs 12-15). 2. Son of Joram, of the tribe of Benjamin, who lived in Jerusalem (1Ch 8:27). 3. Priest, son of Harim, married to a foreign woman at the time of Ezra (Ezr 10:21). 4. Israelite son of Elam. He was among those who had married foreign women at the time of Ezra (Ezr 10:26). 185. Place on Mount Carmel noted as the traditional site where Elijah offered sacrifice to God.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Yahweh is God. 9th century BC prophet C., a native of Tishbé, in the region of Gilead, in Transjordan, 1 R 17, 1. The prophetic ministry of E. began under the sovereign Ajab, king of Israel, 874-853 a. C., who did evil before Yahweh, because he took Jezebel, daughter of Itobaal, king of the Sidonians, as wife, who made Baal fall into idolatry, 1 R 16, 29-33. Because of this sin, E. predicted a three-year drought for Ahab. Then, by the word of Yahweh, E. had to go to the east and hide in the torrent of Kerit, in front of the Jordan River, where the ravens fed him, brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he drank from the water of the river. torrent, until when it was exhausted by drought, 1 Kings 17, 2-7. Again Yahweh spoke to E. and made him go to Zarephath of Sidon, where a widow, who would feed him, in whose house, miraculously, did not lack flour or oil, as the prophet assured the woman, until when the drought will pass, 1 Kings 17, 8-16. While E. was at her widow’s house, her son became seriously ill and died, and the prophet miraculously raised him, 1 Kings 17, 17-24. After three years, Yahweh ordered E. to let himself be seen by King Ahab, and the prophet met Obadiah, mayor of the palace and a man fearful of Yahweh, whom E. sent to the king to notify him of his presence, 1 Kings 18, 1-15. When King Ajab and E. met, he asked him to gather, on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, brought from Tire and maintained by Jezebel, the sovereign’s wife, and all the Israelites, to carry out a judgment of God, 1 Kings 18, 16-19. Arranged what was necessary for the sacrifice, the bulls and the wood, the priests of Baal carried out their rites, among them, making incisions in their bodies, and they invoked their god to send them fire to consume the holocaust, but it was useless. .
Then E. prepared everything for the sacrifice, invoked Yahweh and fire fell from heaven that devoured the holocaust, thus demonstrating that Yahweh is the only God. After this, the prophet E. slaughtered all the prophets of Baal in the Kishon stream, after which the drought ended and a great rain came, 1 Kings 18, 20-46. Jezebel, wife of King Ajab, upon learning of the death of the prophets of Baal, threatened E., through a messenger, so the prophet fled to Beersheba, to the desert, where he wished for death. E. having fallen asleep, an angel of Yahweh woke him up and fed him, after which the prophet walked for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb, where the Covenant was concluded. E. entered the cave, the same “cleft of the rock” where Moses was when Yahweh appeared to him, Ex 33, 22, and the Lord spoke to him, sending him in the direction of the desert of Damascus, to anoint Jazael as king of Aram, to Jehu, king of Israel, a mandate that Elisha would carry out, whom E. had to consecrate as his successor. Yahweh told E. that he would finish off those who had gone after Baal and leave a remnant of seven thousand Israelites, who had remained faithful, 1 Kings 19, 1-18. E. went to meet Elisha, who was ploughing, and threw his cloak over him. Eliseo offered the sacrifice of the oxen with which he plowed, gave the meat to the people to eat, followed E. and served him, 1 R 19, 19, 21.
Digital Bible Dictionary,…