But God told Shemaiah the prophet,<n id="1" />

and took off after the prophet,<n id="1" /> whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, &#8220;Are you the prophet<n id="2" /> from Judah?&#8221; He answered, &#8220;Yes, I am.&#8221;

When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> is the true God!<n id="1" /> The <sc>Lordsc> is the true God!&#8221;

Then<n id="1" /> all the nations of the earth will recognize that the <sc>Lordsc> is the only genuine God.<n id="2" />

The king then said to the prophet, &#8220;Come home with me and have something to eat. I&#8217;d like to give a present.&#8221;

The king pled with<n id="1" /> the prophet,<n id="2" /> &#8220;Seek the favor of<n id="3" /> the <sc>Lordsc> your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored.&#8221; So the prophet sought the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s favor<n id="4" /> and the king&#8217;s hand was restored to its former condition.<n id="5" />

Then you<n id="1" /> will invoke the name of your god, and I will invoke the name of the <sc>Lordsc>. The god who responds with fire will demonstrate that he is the true God.&#8221;<n id="2" /> All the people responded, &#8220;This will be a fair test.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

The altar split open and the ashes<n id="1" /> fell from the altar to the ground,<n id="2" /> in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s authority.<n id="3" />

Their father asked them, &#8220;Which road did he take?&#8221; His sons showed him<n id="1" /> the road the prophet<n id="2" /> from Judah had taken.

The old prophet<n id="1" /> picked up the corpse of the prophet,<n id="2" /> put it on the donkey, and brought it back. The old prophet then entered the city to mourn him and to bury him.

She asked Elijah, &#8220;Why, prophet, have you come<n id="1" /> to me to confront me with<n id="2" /> my sin and kill my son?&#8221;

Answer me, O <sc>Lordsc>, answer me, so these people will know that you, O <sc>Lordsc>, are the true God<n id="1" /> and that you are winning back their allegiance.&#8221;<n id="2" />

So he got up and ate and drank. That meal gave him the strength to travel forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.p>

When the king heard what the prophet<n id="1" /> cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam, standing at the altar, extended his hand<n id="2" /> and ordered,<n id="3" /> &#8220;Seize him!&#8221; The hand he had extended shriveled up<n id="4" /> and he could not pull it back.

But the prophet said to the king, &#8220;Even if you were to give me half your possessions,<n id="1" /> I could not go with you and eat and drink<n id="2" /> in this place.

<p class="bodytext">Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel.<n id="1" /> When his sons came home, they told their father<n id="2" /> everything the prophet<n id="3" /> had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king.<n id="4" />

and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;You<n id="1" /> have rebelled against the <sc>Lordsc><n id="2" /> and have not obeyed the command the <sc>Lordsc> your God gave you.

When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news,<n id="1" /> he said, &#8220;It is the prophet<n id="2" /> who rebelled against the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="3" /> The <sc>Lordsc> delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up<n id="4" /> and killed him, just as the <sc>Lordsc> warned him.&#8221;<n id="5" />

After he buried him, he said to his sons, &#8220;When I die, bury me in the tomb where the prophet<n id="1" /> is buried; put my bones right beside his bones,

Elijah approached all the people and said, &#8220;How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision?<n id="1" /> If the <sc>Lordsc> is the true God,<n id="2" /> then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!&#8221; But the people did not say a word.