6. So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.
7. As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”
8. “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”
9. “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?
10. As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.
11. But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’
12. I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth.
13. Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.
14. And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”
15. Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”
16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
18. “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.
19. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
20. So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
21. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.
22. Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.