1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.

2. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do [to me,] and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."

3. And when he saw [that,] he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which [belongs] to Judah, and left his servant there.

4. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I [am] no better than my fathers!"

5. Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise [and] eat."

6. Then he looked, and there by his head [was] a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again.

7. And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise [and] eat, because the journey [is] too great for you."

8. So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

9. And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD [came] to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

10. So he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life."

11. Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, [but] the LORD [was] not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, [but] the LORD [was] not in the earthquake;

12. and after the earthquake a fire, [but] the LORD [was] not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

13. So it was, when Elijah heard [it,] that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice [came] to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

14. And he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life."

15. Then the LORD said to him: "Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael [as] king over Syria.

16. "Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi [as] king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint [as] prophet in your place.

17. "It shall be [that] whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.

18. "Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."

19. So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who [was] plowing [with] twelve yoke [of oxen] before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him.

20. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and [then] I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?"

21. So [Elisha] turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.