He answered: “I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.”
Because you rage against me and your smugness has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, And make you leave by the way you came.
What do I see? Are they panicking, falling apart? Their warriors are hammered back, They flee headlong never making a stand. Terror on every side— oracle of the Lord!
You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and crumbs of bread, slaying those who should not be slain, and keeping alive those who should not live, lying to my people, who listen to lies.
Look around and learn in which of all the various hiding places he is holding out. Then come back to me with reliable information, and I will go with you. If he is in the region, I will track him down out of all the families of Judah.”