mandments; but in case they
esteemed him to be nothing, but had an opinion of the strange gods,
and that they ought to worship them, his counsel was, that they should
follow them. And when the multitude made no answer to what he said,
Elijah desired that, for a trial of the power of the strange gods, and
of their own God, he, who was his only prophet, while they had four
hundred, might take a heifer and kill it as a sacrifice, and lay it upon
pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire, and that they should do the
same things, and call upon their own gods to set the wood on fire; for
if that were done, they would thence learn the nature of the true God.
This proposal pleased the people. So Elijah bade the prophets to choose
out a heifer first, and kill it, and to call on their gods. But when
there appeared no effect of the prayer or invocation of the prophets
upon their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and bade them call upon
their gods with a loud voice, for they might either be on a journey, or
asleep; and when these prophets had done so from morning till noon, and
cut themselves with swords and lances, [34] according to the customs
of their country, and he was about to offer his sacrifice, he bade [the
prophets] go away, but bade [the people] come near and observe what he
did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces of wood. So,
upon the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones, one for each
tribe of the people of the Hebrews, and built an altar with them, and
dug a very deep trench; and when he had laid the pieces of wood upon the
altar, and upon them had laid the pieces of the sacrifices, he ordered
them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain, and to pour it
upon the altar, till it ran over it, and till the trench was filled with
the water poured into it. When he had done this, he began to pray to
God, and to invocate him to make manifest his power to a people that had
already been in an error a long time; upon which words a fire came on
a sudden from heaven in the sight of the multitude, and fell upon the
altar, and consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was set on fire,
and the place was become dry.

6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down upon the ground, and
worshipped one God, and called him The great and the only true God; but
they called the others mere names, framed by the evil and vile opinions
of men. So they caught their prophets, and, at the command of Elijah,