A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, "In the name of the LORD, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so."

"Leave this place and go east and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan.

Elijah obeyed the LORD's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook.

After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.

Babylonia is the most beautiful kingdom of all; it is the pride of its people. But I, the LORD, will overthrow Babylon as I did Sodom and Gomorrah!

It will be a place where desert animals live and where owls build their nests. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will prance through the ruins.

The water will be low in the Nile, and the river will gradually dry up.

and all the crops planted along the banks of the Nile will dry up and be blown away.

Those who make linen cloth will be in despair;

The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again.

I will destroy the hills and mountains and dry up the grass and trees. I will turn the river valleys into deserts and dry up the pools of water.

With a word of command I dry up the ocean.

"Why did my people fail to respond when I went to them to save them? Why did they not answer when I called? Am I too weak to save them? I can dry up the sea with a command and turn rivers into a desert, so that the fish in them die for lack of water.

I will dry up the Nile and put Egypt under the power of evil people. Foreigners will devastate the whole country. I, the LORD, have spoken."

Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have become dry.

He commands the sea, and it dries up! He makes the rivers go dry. The fields of Bashan wither, Mount Carmel turns brown, and the flowers of Lebanon fade.

As surely as I am the living LORD, the God of Israel, I swear that Moab and Ammon are going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. They will become a place of salt pits and everlasting ruin, overgrown with weeds. Those of my people who survive will plunder them and take their land."

The LORD will use his power to destroy Assyria. He will make the city of Nineveh a deserted ruin, a waterless desert.

Ahab said to Obadiah, "Let us go and look at every spring and every stream bed in the land to see if we can find enough grass to keep the horses and mules alive. Maybe we won't have to kill any of our animals."

The rich people send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; they come back with their jars empty. Discouraged and confused, they hide their faces.

I kept it from raining when your crops needed it most. I sent rain on one city, but not on another. Rain fell on one field, but another field dried up.

Weak with thirst, the people of several cities went to a city where they hoped to find water, but there was not enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me.