1 Kings 18:3, 4

1 Kings 18:3, 4

And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:

For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)

a. Here it records Jezebel’s command that all the prophets of God were to be killed, and Obadiah’s God fearing response was to protect at least 100 of these men. The rest of them or perhaps most were killed by Jezebel.

b. Alfred Edersheim, Bible History, Old Testament, p.667. “With the enthronement of Ahab and Jezebel, the establishment of the worship of Baal as the state religion, and the attempted extermination of the prophets and followers of the Lord, the apostasy of Israel reached it high point.”

c. Most modern scholars place the time of Ahab’s rule to around 874-853 B.C., and Elijah’s ministry between 876 B.C. and 852 B.C., with the catching away of Elijah taking place in 852 B.C.  At the time of Elijah’s snatching away there were groups of the “sons” or followers of the prophets in Bethel, 2 Kings 2:3, and in Jericho, 2 Kings 2:5