1 Kings 18:21-24

18:21 Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? ¹  If the Lord is the true God, ²  then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” But the people did not say a word. 18:22 Elijah said to them: ³  “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. 18:23 Let them bring us two bulls. Let them choose one of the bulls for themselves, cut it up into pieces, and place it on the wood. But they must not set it on fire. I will do the same to the other bull and place it on the wood. But I will not set it on fire. 18:24 Then you ⁴  will invoke the name of your god, and I will invoke the name of the Lord. The god who responds with fire will demonstrate that he is the true God.” ⁵  All the people responded, “This will be a fair test.” ⁶ 

1 Kings 18:36-37

18:36 When it was time for the evening offering, ⁷  Elijah the prophet approached the altar ⁸  and prayed: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove ⁹  today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 18:37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are the true God ¹⁰  and that you are winning back their allegiance.” ¹¹ 

1 Kings 18:2

18:2 So Elijah went to make an appearance before Ahab.

Now the famine was severe in Samaria. ¹² 

1 Kings 18:27

18:27 At noon Elijah mocked them, “Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.” ¹³ 

Amos 3:1

Every Effect has its Cause

3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹⁴  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ¹⁵  from the land of Egypt:

Micah 1:2

The Judge is Coming

1:2 Listen, all you nations! ¹⁶ 

Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! ¹⁷ 

The sovereign Lord will testify ¹⁸  against you;

the Lord will accuse you ¹⁹  from his majestic palace. ²⁰ 

Mark 7:14-16

7:14 Then ²¹  he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. 7:15 There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”

7:16 [[EMPTY]] ²² 

Mark 12:37

12:37 If David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ²³  And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

¹ tn Heb “How long are you going to limp around on two crutches?” (see HALOT 762 s.v. סְעִפִּים). In context this idiomatic expression refers to indecision rather than physical disability.

² tn Heb “the God.”

³ tn Heb “to the people.”

⁴ tn Elijah now directly addresses the prophets.

⁵ tn Heb “the God.”

⁶ tn Heb “The matter [i.e., proposal] is good [i.e., acceptable].”

⁷ tn Heb “at the offering up of the offering.”

⁸ tn The words “the altar” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁹ tn Heb “let it be known.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the God.”

¹¹ tn Heb “that you are turning their heart[s] back.”

¹² map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

¹³ sn Elijah’s sarcastic proposals would have been especially offensive and irritating to Baal’s prophets, for they believed Baal was imprisoned in the underworld as death’s captive during this time of drought. Elijah’s apparent ignorance of their theology is probably designed for dramatic effect; indeed the suggestion that Baal is away on a trip or deep in sleep comes precariously close to the truth as viewed by the prophets.

¹⁴ tn Or “about.”

¹⁵ tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the Lord apparently refers to himself in the third person in the preceding sentence. This first person form, however, serves to connect this message to the earlier indictment (2:10) and anticipates the words of the following verse.

¹⁶ tn Heb “O peoples, all of them.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “O earth and all its fullness”; KJV “and all that therein is.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “May the sovereign Lord testify against you.” The verb וִיהִי (vihiy) is jussive, which normally conveys a volitional sense of an urgent request or prayer (“may he testify!”). However, GKC 325-26 §109.k notes that here the jussive form is used without any volitional sense for the ordinary imperfect, as a rhythmic shortening at the beginning of a sentence, thus removed as far as possible from the principal accent (cf. Gen 49:17; Deut 28:8; 1 Sam 10:5; 2 Sam 5:24; Hos 6:1; 11:4; Amos 5:14; Zeph 2:13; Zech 9:5; Pss 72:16-17; 104:31; Job 18:12; 20:23, 26, 28; 27:8; 33:21; 34:37; Ruth 3:4). Thus, the translation here renders the jussive as an ordinary imperfect. Some translations render it in a traditional jussive sense: (1) urgent request: “And let my Lord God be your accuser” (NJPS); or (2) dependent purpose/result: “that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you” (NIV).

¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord from his majestic palace.” Since the verb is omitted it is unclear whether the implied term be supplied from the preceding line (“he will testify against you”) or the following line (“he is leaving”). So the line may be rendered “the Lord will accuse you from his majestic temple” or “the Lord will come forth from his majestic temple.” Most translations render it literally, but some remove the ambiguity: “the Lord God accuses you from his holy temple” (CEV); “He speaks from his holy temple” (TEV).

²⁰ tn Or “his holy temple” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to the Lord’s dwelling in heaven, however, rather than the temple in Jerusalem (note the following verse, which describes a theophany).

²¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

²² tc Most later mss add 7:16 “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen.” This verse is included in A D W Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt sy, but is lacking in important Alexandrian mss and a few others (א B L Δ* 0274 28 2427). It appears to be a scribal gloss (see 4:9 and 4:23), perhaps introduced as a reiteration of the thought in 7:14, and is almost certainly not an original part of the Greek text of Mark. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

²³ tn Grk “David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).