and when Jezebel was killing the LORD's prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them, hid them in caves in two groups of fifty, and provided them with food and water.)

He answered, " LORD God Almighty, I have always served you---you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left---and they are trying to kill me!"

He answered, " LORD God Almighty, I have always served you---you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left---and they are trying to kill me."

The prophet tore the cloth from his face, and at once the king recognized him as one of the prophets.

The prophet then said to the king, "This is the word of the LORD: 'Because you allowed the man to escape whom I had ordered to be killed, you will pay for it with your life, and your army will be destroyed for letting his army escape.' "

Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely."

The king went back home to Samaria, worried and depressed.

When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, "Have you caught up with me, my enemy?" "Yes, I have," Elijah answered. "You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight.

"Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?" his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.

But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the LORD's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

Evil will kill the wicked; those who hate the righteous will be punished.

Never correct conceited people; they will hate you for it. But if you correct the wise, they will respect you.

Conceited people do not like to be corrected; they never ask for advice from those who are wiser.

Israel's holy God and savior says to the one who is deeply despised, who is hated by the nations and is the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you released and will rise to show their respect; princes also will see it, and they will bow low to honor you." This will happen because the LORD has chosen his servant; the holy God of Israel keeps his promises.

Then the people said, "Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message. Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says."

I hear everybody whispering, "Terror is everywhere! So let's report him to the authorities!" Even my close friends wait for my downfall. "Perhaps he can be tricked," they say; "then we can catch him and get revenge."

Baruch son of Neriah has stirred you up against us, so that the Babylonians will gain power over us and can either kill us or take us away to Babylonia."

So neither Johanan nor any of the army officers nor any of the people would obey the LORD's command to remain in the land of Judah.

You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court.

I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month.

Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.

But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I keep telling it that its ways are bad.

"If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first.

If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you.

I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

When they finish proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them,

People from all nations, tribes, languages, and races will look at their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow them to be buried.

Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, "All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same."

They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, "Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions.

Then the officials went to the king and said, "This man must be put to death. By talking like this he is making the soldiers in the city lose their courage, and he is doing the same thing to everyone else left in the city. He is not trying to help the people; he only wants to hurt them."

"These people want the kind of prophet who goes around full of lies and deceit and says, 'I prophesy that wine and liquor will flow for you.'

At the LORD's command a member of a group of prophets ordered a fellow prophet to hit him. But he refused,

Then this same prophet went to another man and said, "Hit me!" This man did so; he hit him a hard blow and hurt him.

As the king was passing by, the prophet called out to him and said, "Your Majesty, I was fighting in the battle when a soldier brought a captured enemy to me and said, 'Guard this man; if he escapes, you will pay for it with your life or else pay a fine of three thousand pieces of silver.'

The prophet tore the cloth from his face, and at once the king recognized him as one of the prophets.

"Are you coming in peace?" Joram asked him. "How can there be peace," Jehu answered, "when we still have all the witchcraft and idolatry that your mother Jezebel started?"

But evil people are doomed; what they have done to others will now be done to them.

I offer peace to all, both near and far! I will heal my people.

There is no safety for sinners," says the LORD.

When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

"Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family."

and you will say, "Why would I never learn? Why would I never let anyone correct me?

And suddenly I found myself publicly disgraced."

Do you think the people of Israel are under a curse? Has the LORD lost his patience? Would he really do such things? Doesn't he speak kindly to those who do right?"