Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
Parallel translations
- WEB When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
- KJV And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
- BSB When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
- NASB When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, the cause of disaster to Israel?”
- NLT When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, “So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ahab accuses Elijah of being the "troubler of Israel," blaming him for the nation's suffering. The king inverts the truth about who caused the calamity.
Overview
Ahab's greeting is an accusation, casting Elijah as the source of Israel's drought-stricken misery. This is a classic reversal of blame, where the wicked charge the righteous with the very harm they themselves have caused. It mirrors how God's faithful witnesses, ultimately Christ Himself, are often accused of disturbing a society that has actually abandoned God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Josh 7:25Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
- 1 Kgs 21:20Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight.
- Acts 16:20When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city,
- Acts 17:6When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
- Acts 24:5For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
- Amos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
- Jer 38:4Then the princes said to the king, “Please let this man be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man doesn’t seek the welfare of this people, but harm.”
- Jer 26:8–9When Jeremiah had finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall surely die!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 18:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.