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LXX 1 Kings

Septuagint

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Chapter 18

1 And it happened after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, and appear before Ahab, and I will bring rain upon the face of the earth. 2 And Elijah went to appear before Ahab: and the famine was severe in Samaria. 3 And Ahab called Obadiah the steward. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. 4 And it happened when Jezebel struck the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. 5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, Come, and let us go through the land, and to the fountains of water, and to the brooks, if by any means we may find grass, and may save the horses and mules, and so they will not perish from among the cattle. 6 And they made a division of the way between them to pass through it: Ahab went one way alone, and Obadiah went by another way alone. 7 And Obadiah was alone in the way; and Elijah came alone to meet him: and Obadiah hurried, and fell upon his face, and said, My lord Elijah, are you indeed he? 8 And Elijah said to him, I am: go say to your master, Look, Elijah is here. 9 And Obadiah said, What sin have I committed, that you give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? 10 As the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom, where my lord has not sent to seek you; and if they said, He is not here, then he has set fire to the kingdom and its territories, because he has not found you. 11 And now you say, Go, tell your lord, Look, Elijah is here. 12 And it will happen when I shall have departed from you, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry you to a land which I do not know, and I shall go in to tell the matter to Ahab, and he will kill me: yet your servant fears the Lord from his youth. 13 Has it not been told to you my lord, what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, that I hid one hundred men of the prophets of the Lord, by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say to me, Go, say to your master, Look, Elijah is here: and he shall kill me. 15 And Elijah said, As the Lord of Hosts before whom I stand lives, today I will appear before him. 16 And Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab hurried forth, and went to meet Elijah. 17 And it happened when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to Elijah, Are you he that perverts Israel? 18 And Elijah said, I do not pervert Israel; but it is you and your father's house, in that you forsake the Lord your God, and you have gone after Baals. 19 And now send, gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the⁠ prophets of shame four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's table. 20 And Ahab sent to all Israel, and gathered all the prophets to mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah drew near to them all: and Elijah said to them, How long will you halt on both feet? if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him. And the people did not answer a word. 22 And Elijah said to the people, I am left, the only one prophet of the Lord; and the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men, and the prophets of the groves four hundred. 23 Let them give us two oxen, and let them choose one for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire on the wood: and I will dress the other bullock, and put on no fire. 24 And call loudly on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God, and it will happen that the God who shall answer by fire, he is God. And all the people answered and said, The word which you have spoken is good. 25 And Elijah said to the prophets of shame, Choose to yourselves one calf, and dress it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god; but apply no fire. 26 And they took the calf and dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning till noon, and said, hear us, Baal, hear us. And there was no voice, neither was there hearing, and they ran up and down on the altar which they had made. 27 And it was noon, and Elijah the Tishbite mocked them, and said, Call with a loud voice, for he is a god; for he is meditating, or else perhaps he is engaged in business, or perhaps he is asleep, and is to be awakened. 28 And they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their custom with knives and lancets until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And they prophesied until the evening came; and it happened as it was the time of the offering of the sacrifice, that there was no voice; and Elijah the Tishbite spoke to the prophets of the abominations, saying, Stand by for the present, and I will offer my sacrifice. And they stood aside and departed. 30 And Elijah said to the people, Come near to me. And all the people came near to him. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, as the Lord spoke to him, saying, Israel shall be your name. 32 And he built up the stones in the name of the Lord, and repaired the altar that had been broken down; and he made a trench that would hold two measures of seed all around the altar. 33 And he piled the cleft wood on the altar which he had made, and divided the whole burnt offering, and laid it on the wood, and laid it in order on the altar. 34 And he said, Fetch me four pitchers of water, and pour it on the whole burnt offering, and on the wood. And they did so. And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. 35 And the water ran all around the altar, and they filled the trench with water. 36 And Elijah cried aloud to the heaven, and said, Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, answer me, Lord, answer me this day by fire, and let all this people know that you are the Lord, the God of Israel, and I am your servant, and for your sake I have done these works. 37 Hear me, Lord, hear me by fire, and let this people know that you are the Lord God, and you have turned back the heart of this people. 38 Then fire fell from the Lord out of heaven, and devoured the whole burnt offerings, and the wood and the water that was in the trench, and the fire licked up the stones and the earth. 39 And all the people fell upon their faces, and said, Truly the Lord is God; he is God. 40 And Elijah said to the people, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them; and Elijah brings them down to the brook Kishon, and he killed them there. 41 And Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, and eat and drink, for there is a sound of the coming of rain. 42 And Ahab went up to eat and to drink; and Elijah went up to Carmel, and stooped to the ground, and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his servant, Go up, and look toward the sea. And the servant looked, and said, There is nothing: and Elijah said, then go again seven times. And the servant went again seven times. 44 And it happened at the seventh time, that, look, a little cloud like the sole of a man's foot brought water; and he said, Go up, and say to Ahab, make ready your chariot, and go down, for fear that the rain might overtake you. 45 And it happened in the meanwhile, that the heaven grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab wept, and went to Jezreel. 46 And the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah, and he secured his clothing at his waist, and ran before Ahab to Jezreel.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Kings 18:19 and LXX 1 Kings 18:19

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

1 Kings 18 names the prophets of Baal and Asherah as those supported by Jezebel and summoned to Mount Carmel. The Greek Septuagint translation omits these names, instead translating them as negative descriptions of the prophets.

Passages

1 Kings 18:19

Hebrew Bible
18 Elijah replied, “I have not brought disaster on Israel. But you and your father’s dynasty have, by abandoning the Lord’s commandments and following the Baals. 19 Now send out messengers and assemble all Israel before me at Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah whom Jezebel supports.” 20 Ahab sent messengers to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble at Mount Carmel.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Kings

LXX 1 Kings 18:19

Septuagint
18 And Elijah said, I do not pervert Israel; but it is you and your father's house, in that you forsake the Lord your God, and you have gone after Baals. 19 And now send, gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of shame four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's table. 20 And Ahab sent to all Israel, and gathered all the prophets to mount Carmel.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX 1 Kings

References

"... those who will be banned from the New Jerusalem include obviously the second beast who is thrown in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:10), but also “the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (οἱ κύνες καὶ οἱ φάρμακοι καὶ οἱ πόρνοι καὶ οἱ φονεῖς καὶ οἱ εἰδωλολάτραι καὶ πᾶς φιλῶν καὶ ποιῶν ψεῦδος, Revelation 22:15). Every item in this list can be associated with queen Jezebel. She was devoured by dogs, she was said to have promoted sorcery and sexual immorality, she had prophets of yhwh slaughtered and Naboth murdered, she sponsored idolatry, i.e., worship of Baal, (Compare especially 1Kgs 18:19 which speaks of prophets of Baal (LXX: prophets of shame, προφήτας τῆς αἰσχύνης) and of Asherah (LXX: prophets of the grove, προφήτας τῶν ἀλσῶν) who eat at Jezebel’s table: ἐσθίοντας τράπεζαν Ἰεζάβελ.) and she orchestrated the murder of Naboth with false witnesses ..."
Tuomas Rasimus, “Jezebel in Jewish and Christian Tradition,” in Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity, ed. Ulla Tervahauta et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 108–132.

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