28. So the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers, according to their ritual, until blood flowed.
29. They kept on ranting and raving until the middle of the afternoon; but no answer came, not a sound was heard.
30. Then Elijah said to the people, “Come closer to me,” and they all gathered round him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.
31. He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named after the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel.
32. With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. He dug a trench round it, large enough to hold almost fourteen litres of water.
33. Then he placed the wood on the altar, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the offering and the wood.” They did so,
34. and he said, “Do it again” — and they did. “Do it once more,” he said — and they did.
35. The water ran down round the altar and filled the trench.
36. At the hour of the afternoon sacrifice the prophet Elijah approached the altar and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove now that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant and have done all this at your command.
37. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God, and that you are bringing them back to yourself.”
38. The Lord sent fire down, and it burnt up the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones, scorched the earth and dried up the water in the trench.
39. When the people saw this, they threw themselves on the ground and exclaimed, “The Lord is God; the Lord alone is God!”