* 1 Sam. x. 5, where a band of prophets is mentioned “coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them, prophesying;” cf. ver. 10.  In 2 Kings ii. 3-5, bands of the “children of the prophets” come out from Bethel and Jericho to ask Elisha if he knows the fate which awaits Elijah on that very day.

** Cf. the anonymous prophet who encourages Ahab, in the name of Jahveh, to surprise the camp of Benhadad before Samaria (1 Kings xx. 13-15, 22-25, 28); and the prophet Zedekiah, who gives advice contrary to that of his fellow- prophet Micaiah in the council of war held by Ahab with Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, before the attack on Ramobh- gilead (1 Kings xxii. 11, 12, 24).

     *** The ethnical inscription, “Tishbite,” which we find
     after his name (1 Kings xvii. 1, xxi. 17), is due to an
     error on the part of the copyist.

He is there ministered unto by ravens, which bring him bread and meat every night and morning.  When the spring from which he drinks dries up, he goes to the house of a widow at Zarephath in the country of Sidon, and there he lives with his hostess for twelve months on a barrel of meal and a cruse of oil which never fail.  The widow’s son dies suddenly:  he prays to Jahveh and restores him to life; then, still guided by an inspiration from above, he again presents himself before the king.  Ahab receives him without resentment, assembles the prophets of Baal, brings them face to face with Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel, and orders them to put an end to the drought by which his kingdom is wasted.  The Phoenicians erect an altar and call upon their Baalim with loud cries, and gash their arms and bodies with knives, yet cannot bring about the miracle expected of them.  Elijah, after mocking at their cries and contortions, at last addresses a prayer to Jahveh, and fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice in a moment; the people, convinced by the miracle, fall upon the idolaters and massacre them, and the rain shortly afterwards falls in torrents.  After this triumph he is said to have fled once more for safety to the desert, and there on Horeb to have had a divine vision.  “And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind:  and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:  and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire:  and after the fire a still small voice.  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that He wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.  And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’” God then commanded him to anoint Hazael as King of Syria, and Jehu, son of Nimshi, as King over Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat, as prophet in his stead, “and him that