Elijah was a prophet from the town of Tishbe in Gilead. Elijah said to King Ahab, “I serve the Lord God of Israel. By his power, I promise that no dew or rain will fall during the next few years. The rain will fall only if I command it to fall.”
Leviticus 26:19 - Easy To Read Version And I will also destroy the {great cities that} make you proud. The skies will not give rain, and the earth will not produce crops. [444] Tuilleadh leaganachaKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: Amplified Bible - Classic Edition And I will break and humble your pride in your power, and I will make your heavens as iron [yielding no answer, no blessing, no rain] and your earth [as sterile] as brass. [I Kings 17:1.] American Standard Version (1901) And I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass; Common English Bible I will destroy your prideful power. I will turn your sky to iron and your land to bronze Catholic Public Domain Version And I will crush the pride in your hardness, and I will give to you heaven above like iron, and the earth below like brass. Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version And I will break the pride of your stubbornness: and I will make to you the heaven above as iron, and the earth as brass. |
Elijah was a prophet from the town of Tishbe in Gilead. Elijah said to King Ahab, “I serve the Lord God of Israel. By his power, I promise that no dew or rain will fall during the next few years. The rain will fall only if I command it to fall.”
“Sometimes they will sin against you, and you will stop the rain from falling on their land. Then they will pray toward this place and praise your name. You make them suffer, and they will be sorry for their sins.
The Lord has a special day planned. On that day, the Lord will punish the proud and boastful people. Then those proud people will be made not important.
The Lord will spread his arms\par like a person that is swimming.\par Then the Lord will gather\par all the things the people are proud of.\par The Lord will gather\par all the beautiful things they made.\par And he will throw those things away.\par
But the Lord will destroy the proud city.\par And he will punish the people living there.\par The Lord will throw that high city down to the ground.\par It will fall into the dust.\par
Look at Samaria!\par The drunk people of Ephraim\par are proud of that city.\par That city sits on a hill\par with a rich valley around it.\par The people of Samaria think their city\par is a beautiful crown of flowers.\par But they are drunk with wine.\par And this “Beautiful Crown”\par is just a dying plant.\par
This is what the Lord said: “The loincloth {\cf2\super [109]} is ruined and not good for anything. In the same way, I will ruin the proud people of Judah and Jerusalem.
You sinned, so the rain has not come.\par There have not been any springtime rains.\par But still you refuse to be ashamed.\par The look on your face is like the look\par that a prostitute has when she\par refuses to be ashamed.\par You refuse to be ashamed of what you did.\par
to speak to the family of Israel. The Lord my Master said, ‘Look, I will destroy my holy place. You are proud of that place and sing songs of praise about it. You love to see that place. You really love that place. \{But I will destroy that place\} and your children that you left behind will be killed in battle.
The Lord my Master says these things:\par “The people who support Egypt will fall!\par The pride in her power will end.\par The people in Egypt will be killed in battle,\par all the way from Migdol to Aswan.”\par The Lord my Master said those things!\par
I will make the land empty and a waste. That country will lose all the things it was proud of. The mountains of Israel will become empty. No one will pass through that place.
I will bring evil people from other nations. And those evil people will get all the houses of the people of Israel. I will stop all of you powerful people from being so proud. Those people from other nations will get all your places of worship. {\cf2\super [56]}
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give praise, honor, and glory to the King of Heaven. Everything he does is right. He is always fair. And he is able to make proud people humble!
“Then, Jerusalem, you will no longer be ashamed of the bad things your people do against me. Why? Because I will remove all of those bad people from Jerusalem. I will take away all of those proud people. There won’t be any of those proud people on my holy mountain. {\cf2\super [21]}
What I say is true. During the time of Elijah {\cf2\super [74]} it did not rain in Israel for three and a half years. There was no food anywhere in the whole country. There were many widows {\cf2\super [75]} in Israel during that time.
If you do that, then the Lord will become very angry at you. He will shut the skies, and there will be no rain. The land will not make a harvest. And you will soon die in the good land that the Lord is giving you.
{There will be no clouds in the sky}—the sky will look like polished brass. And the ground under you will be hard like iron.
The Philistines took God’s Holy Box [46] and killed Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
The Israelite soldiers came back to their camp. The elders (leaders) of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord let the Philistines defeat us? Let’s bring the Lord’s Box of the Agreement [41] from Shiloh. {In this way, God will go with us into battle.} He will save us from our enemies.”