Elijah

Elijah (’Eliyyahu, “my God is YHWH”) bursts into the narrative at 1 Kings 17 with no introduction beyond his town of origin: Tishbe in Gilead, east of the Jordan. The ninth-century BC northern kingdom under Omri’s dynasty had imported the Tyrian cult of Baal through Ahab’s wife Jezebel, and Elijah’s ministry is the prophetic counter-attack. He announces a drought, is fed by ravens at the brook Cherith and by a widow at Zarephath in Phoenicia, raises the widow’s son, and after three rainless years confronts 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in the famous contest of altars. Fire falls from heaven on his sacrifice and the rain returns. Threatened by Jezebel, he flees south to Beersheba, then forty days into the wilderness to Horeb (Sinai), where the LORD passes by in wind, earthquake, and fire — but is found in the qol demamah daqqah, the “still small voice” (1Ki.19). He anoints Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha as instruments of judgment and successor, then is taken up to heaven in a chariot and whirlwind of fire across the Jordan (2Ki.2). The final verses of the Old Testament promise his return before “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Mal.4.5–6); the New Testament identifies John the Baptist as his fulfilment (Mat.11.14).