« | 1 Kings 18 | » |
1 After processe of many dayes, the word of the Lord came to Elias in the third yere, saying: Go shewe thy selfe vnto Ahab, and I wyll sende rayne vpon the earth.
2 And Elias went to shewe him selfe vnto Ahab: and there was a great famishment in Samaria.
3 And Ahab called Obadia, which was the gouernour of his house: (and Obadia feared God greatly.
4 For when Iezabel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, Obadia toke an hundred prophets, and hid them by fiftie in a caue, and prouided bread and water for them.)
5 And Ahab saide vnto Obadia: Go into the lande, vnto all fountaines of water, and vnto all brookes, if happyly we may finde grasse to saue the horses and mules aliue, and that we destroy not [some of] the beastes.
6 And so they deuided the lande betweene them to walke through it: Ahab went one way by him selfe, and Obadia went another way by him selfe.
7 And it chaunced that as Obadia was in the way, beholde Elias met him, and he knew him, and fell on his face, and saide: Art not thou my lorde Elias?
8 And he aunswered him, I am he: Go, and tel thy lorde, beholde, Elias is here.
9 He saide: What haue I sinned, that thou wouldest delyuer thy seruaunt into the hande of Ahab, to slay me?
10 As the Lorde thy God liueth, there is no nation or kingdome, whyther my lord hath not sent to seeke thee: And when they saide, he is not there: he toke an oth of the kingdome and nation when he found thee not.
11 And now thou sayest, Go, and tell thy lorde that Elias is here.
12 And assoone as I am gone from thee, the spirite of the Lorde shall carrie thee into some place that I do not knowe, and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can not finde thee, he shall slay me: But I thy seruaunt feare the Lorde from my youth vp.
13 Was it not tolde my lorde what I did, when Iezabel slue the prophets of the Lorde? how I hid an hundred men of the Lordes prophets, fiftie men in one caue, and fiftie in another, and prouided them of bread and water?
14 And thou sayest, Go thou now & shewe thy lorde, beholde Elias is here: that he may slay me.
15 And Elias saide: As the Lorde of hoastes liueth before whom I stand, I wyll shewe my selfe vnto him this day.
16 So Obadia went to meete Ahab, and tolde him: And Ahab went to meete Elias.
17 And it fortuned that when Ahab sawe Elias, he saide vnto him: Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
18 He aunswered: It is not I that haue troubled Israel, but thou and thy fathers house, in that ye haue forsaken the commaundements of the Lorde, & thou hast folowed Baal.
19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel vnto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal foure hundred and fiftie, and the prophets of the [idols] groues foure hundred, which eate at Iezabels table.
20 So Ahab sent vnto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together vnto mount Carmel.
21 And Elias came vnto all the people, and said: how long halt ye betweene two opinions? If the Lorde be God, folowe him: but if Baal be he, then go after him. And the people aunswered him not one worde.
22 Then saide Elias vnto the people [againe] I onely remayne a prophete of the Lorde: but Baals prophets are foure hundred and fiftie.
23 Let them therefore geue vs two oxen, and let them choose the one, & cut hym in peeces, and lay him on wood, and put no fire vnder: and I wyll dresse the other oxe, and laye him on wood, & wyll put no fyre vnder.
24 And call ye on the name of your gods, & I wyl call on the name of the Lorde: and then the God that aunswereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people aunswered and saide, It is wel spoken.
25 And Elias saide vnto the prophets of Baal: Choose you an oxe, & dresse him first, for ye are many: & call on the name of your gods, but put no fire vnder.
26 And they toke the one oxe that he dyd geue them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning to noone, saying, O Baal heare vs. But there was no voyce, nor one to aunswere: And they lept vpon the aulter that they had made.
27 And at noone Elias mocked them, and sayde: Crye lowde, for he is a God, peraduenture he is talking, or occupied in folowing vpon his enemies, or is in his iourney, or happyly he slepeth, and must be awaked [with your crie.]
28 And they cried lowde, and cut them selues as their maner was with kniues & launcers, till the blood folowed on the.
29 And it chaunced, that when midday was passed, they prophesied vntill the time of the euening sacrifice: But there was neither voyce, nor one to aunswere, nor any that regarded them.
30 And Elias said vnto all the folke: Come to me. And all the people came to him: And he repaired the aulter of the Lord that was broken.
31 And Elias toke twelue stones, according to the number of the twelue tribes of the sonnes of Iacob, vnto whom the word of the Lorde came, saying: Israel shalbe thy name.
32 And with the stones he made an aulter in the name of the Lorde: And he made a ditch about the aulter, as great as would conteyne two measures of seede.
33 And he put the wood in order, and hewed the oxe in peeces, and layed him on the wood, and said: Fill foure barrels with water, and powre it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
34 And he sayde: Do so againe. And they dyd so the seconde time. And he sayde againe: Do it the thirde time. And they dyd it the thirde time:
35 And the water ran round about the aulter, & he filled the pitte with water also.
36 And it fortuned, that when they should offer the euening sacrifice, Elias the prophete came, and sayde: Lorde God of Abraham, Isahac, and of Israel, it shalbe knowen this day that thou art the God in Israel, & [that] I [am] thy seruaunt, and that I haue done all these thinges at thy commaundement.
37 Heare me O Lord, heare me, that this people may knowe that thou art the Lorde God, and [that] thou hast turned their heart againe nowe at the last.
38 And the fire of the Lord fel, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the duste, and licked vp the water that was in the pit.
39 And when all the people sawe it, they fell on their faces, and sayde: The Lord he is God, the Lorde he is God.
40 And Elias sayd vnto them: Take the prophetes of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And they toke them, and Elias brought them vnto the brooke Kison, and slue them there.
41 And Elias sayde vnto Ahab: Get thee vp, eate and drinke: for there is a sounde of much rayne.
42 And so Ahab went vp to eate and to drinke, and Elias went vp to the top of Carmel, and he layde him selfe flat vpo the earth, and put his face betweene his knees,
43 And sayde to his seruaunt: Go vp [I pray thee] and loke towarde the way of the sea. And he went vp, and loked, and sayde: There is nothing. And againe he sayde: Go againe seuen times.
44 And it fortuned that at the seuenth time, he sayde: Beholde there aryseth a litle cloude of the sea lyke a mans hand. He sayde: Go, and say vnto Ahab, Make fast [thy charet] and get thee downe, that the rayne stoppe thee not.
45 And it came to passe, that in the meane whyle the heauen was blacke with cloudes and winde, & there was a great rayne: And Ahab gat vp, and came to Iezrahel.
46 And the hande of the Lorde was on Elias, and he girded vp his loynes, and ranne before Ahab, till he came to Iezrahel.
The Bishop’s Bible (BB)
The Bishop’s Bible (BB) is a significant English translation of the Bible that was first published in 1568 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was commissioned by the Church of England as a revision of the Great Bible and as a response to the Geneva Bible, which was popular among the Puritans but contained marginal notes that were considered politically and theologically contentious by the Anglican establishment. The primary goal of the Bishop’ s Bible was to create a translation that would be more acceptable to the ecclesiastical authorities and suitable for use in Anglican churches.
One of the distinguishing features of the Bishop’s Bible is its effort to maintain a high level of accuracy and scholarly integrity while also ensuring that the language used was dignified and appropriate for public reading. The translation was undertaken by a team of bishops and other scholars, hence its name. The translators aimed to preserve the poetic and literary qualities of the original texts, drawing on previous translations such as the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, and the Great Bible, while also incorporating their scholarly insights and linguistic refinements.
The Bishop’s Bible was notable for its large, folio format, which was designed to be read from the pulpit. It included extensive marginal notes, though these were more restrained and less controversial than those found in the Geneva Bible. The translation also featured elaborate illustrations and maps, as well as a comprehensive introduction and various prefaces that provided context and guidance for readers. Despite its grandeur and scholarly merit, the Bishop’s Bible did not achieve the widespread popularity of the Geneva Bible among the general populace.
Although the Bishop’s Bible played an essential role in the religious and cultural life of Elizabethan England, it was eventually overshadowed by the King James Version (KJV), which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611. The KJV drew heavily on the Bishop’ s Bible, as well as other earlier translations, but ultimately surpassed it in both scholarly rigor and literary quality. Nonetheless, the Bishop’s Bible remains an important milestone in the history of English Bible translations, reflecting the theological and political currents of its time and contributing to the development of subsequent translations.