Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Kings 18:14 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 14. 14And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence: “And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Obadiah fears the cost of announcing Elijah.”
Obadiah meets Elijah and is told to announce him to Ahab
This verse is one part of that explanation in 1 Kings 18:7–16. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- 1 Kings 18:7–16
Read 1 Kings 18:14 with 18:7–16. The selected wording supplies one step in the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Brings Obadiah face to face with the prophet he recognizes; reports Obadiah delivering the message and Ahab going to Elijah.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “Obadiah fears the cost of announcing Elijah,” 1 Kings 18:14 advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence through the wording “And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 1 Kings 18:1–6 establishes this prior movement: Opens the third year with the promise of rain and the command that Elijah face Ahab; divides the water-search route between Ahab and Obadiah. 1 Kings 18:7–16 continues the same royal, temple, household, prophetic, or military movement; that demonstrated relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 1 Kings 18:7–16 together
Why these verses belong together: Obadiah fears the cost of announcing Elijah is the complete reviewed scene, prayer, oracle, list, or regnal notice bounded at 18:7–18:16.
Verse 7. 7 And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah?
Verse 8. 8 And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
Verse 9. 9 And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?
Verse 10. 10 As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not.
Verse 11. 11 And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
Verse 12. 12 And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth.
Verse 13. 13 Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
Verse 14. 14 And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.
Verse 15. 15 And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day.
Verse 16. 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
What Remains True
Truthful witness may confront power without making every messenger, method, or claimed revelation morally infallible. This unit tests that truth through brings Obadiah face to face with the prophet he recognizes; reports Obadiah delivering the message and Ahab going to Elijah. In 1 Kings 18:14, the concrete line “And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read 1 Kings 18:7–16 — Obadiah fears the cost of announcing ElijahSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 1 Kings 18:7–16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, name, clause, and older-English checks; this is not a critical apparatus or historical proof.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:7–16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 1 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only printed unit-level translation, lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and verse-numbering notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 1 Kings PDF, printed pp. 619–621, translation and translator notes for 18:7–16
Open source ↗