Now Elijah the Tishbite was a prophet from the settlers in Gilead. “I serve the Lord, the God of Israel,” Elijah said to Ahab. “As surely as the Lord lives, no rain or dew will fall during the next few years unless I command it.”
“When they sin against you, you will stop the rain from falling on their land. Then they will pray, facing this place and praising you; they will stop sinning when you make them suffer.
They will spread their arms in it like a person who is swimming. But God will bring down their pride, and all the clever things they have made will mean nothing.
He will destroy the proud city, and he will punish the people living there. He will bring that high city down to the ground and throw it down into the dust.
How terrible it will be for Samaria, the pride of Israel’s drunken people! That beautiful crown of flowers is just a dying plant set on a hill above a rich valley where drunkards live.
So the rain has not come, and there have not been any spring rains. But your face still looks like the face of a prostitute. You refuse even to be ashamed of what you did.
‘Say to the people of Israel, This is what the Lord God says: I am going to dishonor my Temple. You think it gives you strength. You are proud of it, and you look at it with love and tenderness. But your sons and daughters that you left behind in Jerusalem will fall dead by the sword.
“ ‘This is what the Lord says: Those who fight on Egypt’s side will fall. The power she is proud of will be lost. The people in Egypt will fall dead in war from Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south, says the Lord God.
I will make the land an empty desert. The people’s pride in the land’s power will end. The mountains of Israel will become empty so that no one will pass through them.
So I will bring the worst of the nations to take over the people’s houses. I will also end the pride of the strong, and their holy places will be dishonored.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give praise and honor and glory to the King of heaven. Everything he does is right and fair, and he is able to make proud people humble.
Then Jerusalem will not be ashamed of the wrongs done against me, because I will remove from this city those who like to brag; there will never be any more proud people on my holy mountain in Jerusalem.
But I tell you the truth, there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah. It did not rain in Israel for three and one-half years, and there was no food anywhere in the whole country.
If you do, the Lord will become angry with you and will shut the heavens so it will not rain. Then the land will not grow crops, and you will soon die in the good land the Lord is giving you.
When some Israelite soldiers went back to their camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord let the Philistines defeat us? Let’s bring the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord here from Shiloh and take it with us into battle. Then God will save us from our enemies.”