19 Then King Ahav told Izevel (Jezebel) everything that Eliyyah, including how he’d killed all of Baal’s prophets, 2 so she sent this message to Eliyyah, “May the gods kill me or do worse if I haven’t done with your life what you did to those prophets by this time tomorrow.” 3 Hearing that, he packed up and fled for his life to Beersheva in Yehudah, where he left his servant. 4 Then he went an extra day’s travel further south into the wilderness where he sat down under a broom bush and prayed that he might be allowed to die, saying, “This is now too much, Yahweh. Take my life, because I’m no better than my ancestors.”.[ref]

5 Then he laid down and slept under the broom bush, until he was suddenly woken by a messenger from Yahweh telling him to get up and eat. 6 Eliyyah looked around and wow, there was some bread near his head that had been cooked on glowing coals, and a jug of water. He got up and ate and drank, and they lay down again. 7 Then Yahweh’s messenger returned a second time and prodded him and said, “Get up and eat, because otherwise the journey ahead will be too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. That food lasted his for forty days as he travelled to God’s mountain, Horeb (Mt. Sinai). 9 He entered a cave there and overnighted in the cave, then suddenly Yahweh spoke to him, asking, “What are you doing here, Eliyyah?”

10 “I’ve been very zealous for you, army commander Yahweh,” he replied. “But the Israeli people have abandoned your agreement, and they’ve torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. So here I am, left by myself while meanwhile they’re trying to kill me.”[ref]

11 Then Yahweh said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in front of me, Yahweh. Then look, I’m about to go past you.” Then there was an incredibly strong wind that hit the mountain and broke off bits of rock that then shattered. But Yahweh wasn’t in the wind, and after the wind there was an earthquake but Yahweh wasn’t in the earthquake either. 12 After the earthquake there was a fire, but Yahweh wasn’t in the fire.

Then after the fire, there was the sound of a soft whisper. 13 When Eliyyah heard that, he wrapped his cloak around his face and went out and stood at the opening of the cave, and he heard a voice ask him, “Why are you here, Eliyyah?”

14 “I’ve been very zealous for you, army commander Yahweh,” he replied, “But the Israeli people have abandoned your agreement, and they’ve torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. So here I am, left by myself while meanwhile they’re trying to kill me.”

15 Then Yahweh told him, “Go back towards the Damascus wilderness, then you must go and anoint Hazael as king over Aram (Syria).[ref] 16 Also you need to anoint Nimshi’s son Yehu as king over Israel, and you must anoint Shafat’s son Elisha from Abel-Meholah to succeed you as prophet.[ref] 17 In the future, anyone who escapes from being killed by Hazael’s army will be killed by Yehu’s army will be killed by Elisha. 18 But I’ve still got seven thousand people in Israel who’ve never bowed to Baal or kissed his image.”[ref]