1After many days the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth."

2So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.

3And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly,

4and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)

5And Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals."

6So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

7And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?"

8And he answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'"

9And he said, "How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?

10As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, 'He is not here,' he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you.

11And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here."'

12And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth.

13Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water?

14And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, "Behold, Elijah is here"'; and he will kill me."

15And Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today."