1   After manie daies the word of our Lord came to Elias, the third yeare, saying: Goe, and shew thy self to Achab, that I may geue rayne vpon the face of the earth.

2   Elias therfore went to shew himself to Achab: and there was sore famine in Samaria.

3   And Achab called Abdias the gouernour of his house: and Abdias did feare our Lord very much.

4   For when Iezabel killed the prophetes of our Lord, he tooke an hundred prophetes, and hid them by fiftie and fiftie in caues, and fed them with bread and water.

5   Achab therfore sayd to Abdias: Goe into the land to al the fountaynes of waters, and into al valleys, if perhaps we may finde grasse, and saue the horses and mules, and the beastes may not vtterly perish.

6   And they diuided the countries betwen them, that they might goe circuite about them: Achab went one way, and Abdias an other way seuerally.

7   And when Abdias was in the way, Elias mette him: who when he knew him, ^note fel on his face, and sayd: My lord, art not thou Elias?

8   To whom he answered: I am. Goe, and tel thy lord: Elias is here.

9   And he sayd: What haue I sinned, that thou deliuerest me thy seruant into the hand of Achab, that he may kil me?

10   Our Lord thy God liueth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seeke thee: and al answering: He is not here: he adiured al kingdomes and nations, for that thou wast not found.

11   And now thou sayest to me: Goe, and tel thy lord: Elias is here.

12   And when I am departed from thee, the Spirit of our Lord wil carie thee into a place, that I know

Achab. not: and I entering in shal tel Achab, and not finding thee, he wil kil me: and thy seruant feareth our Lord from his infancie.

13   Hath it not beene told thee my lord, what I did when Iezabel killed the prophetes of our Lord, that I hid of the prophetes of our Lord an hundred men, by fiftie and fiftie in caues, and fed them with bread and water?

14   And now thou sayst: Goe, and tel thy lord: Elias is here: that he may kil me?

15   And Elias sayd: The Lord of hostes liueth, before whose face I stand, this day wil I appeare to him.

16   Abdias therfore went to meete Achab, and told him: and Achab came to meete Elias.

17   And when he had seene him, he sayd: Art thou he that doest truble Israel?

18   And he sayd: not I haue trubled Israel, but thou, and the house of thy father, who haue forsaken the commandmentes of our Lord, and haue folowed Baalim.

19   Neuerthelesse send now, and gather vnto me al Israel in the mount of Carmel, and the prophetes of Baal foure hundred fiftie, and the prophetes of the groues foure hundred, which eate of Iezabels table.

20   Achab sent to al the children of Israel, and gathered together the prophetes in the mount of Carmel.

21   And Elias coming to al the people, sayd: ^note How long halt you on two sides? If our Lord be God, folow him: but if Baal, folow him. And the people did not answer him a word.

22   And Elias sayd agayne to the people: I onlie remayne a prophete of our Lord: and the prophetes of Baal are foure hundred and fiftie men.

23   Let two oxen be geuen vs, and let them choose to them selues one oxe, and cutting it into peeces let them lay it vpon wood, but put no fyre vnder: and I wil dresse the other oxe, and wil lay it vpon wood, and put no fire vnder.

24   Inuocate ye the names of your goddes, & I wil inuocate the name of my Lord: and the God that shal heare by fyre, let the same be God. And al the people answering sayd: A very good proposition.

25   Elias therfore sayd to the prophetes of Baal: Choose you one oxe, and make it first, because you are manie: & inuocate the names of your goddes, and put no fire vnder.

26   Who when they had taken the oxe, which he gaue them, they dressed it: and they inuocated the name of Baal from morning vntil midday, saying: Baal heare vs. And there was no voice, nor any that answered: and they leaped ouer the altar, that they had made.

27   And when it was now midday, Elias iested at them, saying: Crie with a lowder voice: for he is God, and perhaps he speaketh,

Elias. Achab. or is in his inne, or in the way, or at the least he slepeth, that he must be waked.

28   They cried therfore with a lowd voice, and cut them selues after their rite with kniues and lancers, til they were al embrewed with bloud.

29   And after the midday was past, and whiles they prophecied, the time was come, when they vsed to offer sacrifice, neither voice was heard, nor any did answer, nor attend them praying:

30   Elias sayd to al the people: Come vnto me. And the people coming to him, he repayred the altar of our Lord, that was destroyed.

31   And he tooke twelue stones according to the number of the tribes of the children of Iacob, to whom the word of our Lord came, saying: Israel shal be thy name.

32   And he built of the stones an altar in the name of our Lord: and he made a water gutter, as it were by two furrowes round about the altar,

33   and he layed the wood in order, and diuided the oxe in iointes, and layd it vpon the wood,

34   and said: Fil foure buckettes with water, and powre vpon the holocauste, and vpon the wood. And againe he sayd: Doe it also the second time. Who hauing donne it the second time, he said: The third time also doe the same. And they did so the third time,

35   and the waters ranne about the altar, and the trough of the conduite was filled.

36   And when it was now time that the holocauste should be offered, Elias the prophete coming said: Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, & Israel, shew this day that thou art the God of Israel, and I thy seruant, & that according to thy commandment I haue done al these thinges.

37   Heare me Lord, heare me: ^note that this people may learne, that thou art our Lord God, & thou hast conuerted their hart againe.

38   And the fire of our Lord fel, & deuoured the holocauste, & the wood, and the stones, licking also the dust, and the water, that was in the water gutter.

39   Which when al the people had seene, they fel on their face, and said: Our Lord he is God, our Lord he is God.

40   And Elias said to them: Apprehend the prophetes of Baal, and let not one escape of them. Whom when they had taken, Elias brought them to the Torrent cison, and killed them there.

41   And Elias sayd to Achab: Goe vp, eate, and drinke: because there is sound of much raine.

42   Achab went vp to eate and drinke: and Elias, went vp into the toppe of Carmel, and flatte on the earth put his face betwen his knees,

43   and he said to his seruant: Goe vp, and looke toward the sea. Who when he was gone vp, and had looked, he said: There

Elias. Iezabel. is nothing. And againe he said to him: Returne seuen tymes.

44   And in the seuenth time: Behold a litle cloud as it were a mans foote, came vp from the sea. Who said: Goe vp and say to Achab: Yoke thy chariote and goe downe, lest the raine preuent thee.

45   And when he turned him selfe hither and thither, behold the heauens were darkened, and cloudes, and winde, and there fel great raine. Achab therfore going vp went into Iezrahel:

46   and the hand of our Lord was made vpon Elias, and his loynes girded he ranne before Achab, vntil he came into Iezrahel.

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