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23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent forth peals of thunder and hail.(A) Lightning flashed toward the earth, and the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

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28 Pray to the Lord! Enough of the thunder[a] and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.” 29 Moses replied to him, “As soon as I leave the city I will extend my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.”

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Footnotes

  1. 9:28 Thunder: lit., “divine voices,” “voices of God,” or the like.

Chapter 18

Elijah Ends the Drought.[a] Long afterward, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: Go, present yourself to Ahab, that I may send rain upon the earth.

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Footnotes

  1. 18:1–45 The story of the conflict with the prophets of Baal (vv. 21–40) is embedded in the story of the drought and its ending (vv. 1–20, 41–45). The connection between the two stories is found in Canaanite theology, in whose pantheon Baal, “the Cloud Rider,” the god of rain and storm, was recognized as the one who brings fertility. Worship of many gods was virtually universal in the ancient world; the Israelite requirement of exclusive worship of the Lord (Ex 20:3) was unique. The people of Israel had apparently become comfortable worshiping both Baal and the Lord, perhaps assigning mutually exclusive spheres of influence to each. By claiming authority over the rain (17:1; 18:1), the Lord was challenging Baal’s power in Baal’s own domain. The entire drought story in chaps. 17–18 implies what becomes explicit in 18:21–40: this is a struggle between the Lord and Baal for the loyalties of the people of Israel.