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1 Kings 18:25-27
New English Translation

25 Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls for yourselves and go first, for you are the majority. Invoke the name of your god, but do not light a fire.”[a] 26 So they took a bull, as he had suggested,[b] and prepared it. They invoked the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us.” But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped[c] around on the altar they had made.[d] 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.”[e]

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 18:25 tc The last sentence of v. 25 is absent in the Syriac Peshitta.
  2. 1 Kings 18:26 tn Heb “and they took the bull which he allowed them.”
  3. 1 Kings 18:26 tn Heb “limped” (the same verb is used in v. 21).
  4. 1 Kings 18:26 tc The MT has “which he made,” but some medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions have the plural form of the verb.
  5. 1 Kings 18:27 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.
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