Elijah Predicts a Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of ^(A)Tishbe^[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, ^(B)“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, ^(C)before whom I stand, ^(D)there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Elijah Confronts Ahab

18 ^(A)After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.”

¹⁷ Elijah was a man ^(A)with a nature like ours, and ^(B)he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for ^(C)three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

⁶ They have the power ^(A)to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and ^(B)to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.