His next refuge, under the divine guidance (1 Kings xvii, 9), was at Zarephath, a Phoenician town lying between Tyre and Sidon, certainly the last place at which the enemy of Baal would be looked for. The widow woman in whose house he lived is thought, however, to have been an Israelite, and no Baal-wor- shipper, by some who take her adjuration hy "Jeho- vah thy God" as an indication. But the obvious cir- cumstances of the case, and her mention by our Sav- iour (Luke iv, 2(5), imply her heathen character. Here Elijah performed the miracles of prolonging the oil and the meal, and restored the son of the widow to life after his sudden death. The traditional scene of his meet- ing with the widow was in a wood to the south of the town (Mislin, i, 532, who, however, does not give his authority). In the time of Jerome the spot was marked by a tower (Jerome, Ep. Paulm). At a later period a church dedicated to the prophet was erected over the house of the Avidow, in which his chamber and her kneading-trough were shown (Anton. Martyr and Pho- cas, in lieland, p. 085). This church was called to X'lpi'iov {Acta Sanctorum'). The Jewish tradition, quoted by Jerome, was that the resuscitated boy was the servant who afterwards accompanied Elijah, and finally became the prophet Jonah (Jerome, Pn/. to Jonah ; and see the citations from the Talmuds in Ei- senmenger, ii, 725).
The drought continued, and at last the full horrors of famine, caused by the failure of the crops, descended on Samaria. During this time the prophet was called upon passively to suffer God's will ; now he must once again resume the more active duties of life ; he must make one great public effort more to reclaim his coun- try from apostasy and ruin. According to the word of the Lord, he returned to Israel ; Ahab was yet alive, and unreformed ; Jezebel, his impious consort, was still mad upon her idols; in a word, the propliets of Baal were prophesyinr) lies, the priests were hearing rule by their means, and the peojile loved to have it so. The king and his chief domestic officer had divided between them the mournful duty of ascertaining that neither round the springs, which are so frequent a feature of central Palestine, nor in the nooks and crannies of the most shaded torrent-beds, was there any of the herb- age left, which in those conntries is so certain an indi- cation of the presence of moisture. No one short of the two chief persons of the realm could be trusted with this quest for life or death— " Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by him- self." It is the moment for the reappearance of the prophet. Wishing not to tempt God by going unnec- essarily into danger, he first presented himself to good Obadiah (1 Kings xviii, 7). There, suddenly planted in his path, is the man whom he and his master have been seeking for more than three years. Before the sudden apparition of that wild figure, and that stern, unbroken countenance, Obadiah could not but fall on his face. Elijah requested him to announce to Ahab that he had returned. Obadiah, apparently stung by the unkindness of this request, replied, " What have I sinned, that thou shouldest thus expose me to Ahab's rage, who will certainly slay me for not apprehending thee, for whom he has so long and so anxiously sought in all lands and in confederate countries, that they
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should not harhor a traitor whom he looks upon as the author of the I'aniino," etc. INIoreover, he would deli- cately intimate to Elijah how he had actually jeopard- ed his own life in securing that of one hundred of the Lord's prophets, and whom he had fed at liis own ex- pense. tSatislied with Elijah's reply to this touching appeal, wherein he removed all his fears ahout the Spirifs carrying him away (as 2 Kings ii, 11-10 ; Ezek. iii, 4 ; Acts viii, 39), he resolves to be the prophet's luessengT to Ahab. Intending to be revenged on him, or to inquire when rain might be expected, Ahab now came forth to meet Elijah. He at once charged him with troubling Israel, i. e. with being the main cause of all the calamities which he and the nation had suffered. But Elijah flung back the charge upon himself, assigning the real cause to be his own sin of idolatry. Regarding, however, his magisterial posi- tion, while he reproved his sin, he requests him to ex- ercise his authority in summoning an assembly to Mount Carmel, that the controversy between them might he decided hy a direct miracle from heaven (comp. Matt, xvi, 1). Whatever were his secret mo- tives, Ahab accepted this proposal. As fire was the element over which Baal was supposed to preside, the prophet proposes (wishing to give them ever}' advan- tage), that, two bullocks being slain, and laid each upon a distinct altar, the one for Baal, the other for Je- hovah, whichever should be consumed bj' fire must proclaim whose the people of Israel were, and whom it was their duty to serve. The people consent to this proposal, because, it may be, the}' were not altogether ignorant how God had formerly answered \>y fire (Gen. iv,4; Lev. ix, 24; Judg.vi,21; xiii,20; 1 Chron. xxi, 26 ; 2 Chron. vii, 1). Elijah will have summoned not only all the elders of Israel, but also the four hundred priests of Baal belonging to Jezebel's court, and the four hundred and fifty who were dispersed over the kingdom. The former, however, did not attend, be- ing, perhaps, glad to shelter themselves under the plea that Jezebel would not allow them to do so. Why Mount Carmel, which we do not hear of until now, was chosen in preference to the nearer El)al or Geri- zim, is not evident. Possibly Elijah thought it wise to remove the place of the meeting to a distance from Samaria. Possibly in the existence of the altar of Je- hovah (xviii, .SO) — in ruins, and therefore of earlier erection — we have an indication of an ancient sanctity attaching to the spot. On the question of the particu- lar part of the ridge of Carmel which formed the site of the meeting, there cannot be much doubt. See Carmel.