1 Kings 18:28
New International Version
So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.

New Living Translation
So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.

English Standard Version
And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.

Berean Standard Bible
So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.

King James Bible
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

New King James Version
So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.

New American Standard Bible
So they cried out with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed out on them.

NASB 1995
So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

NASB 1977
So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

Legacy Standard Bible
So they cried with a loud voice and gashed themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

Amplified Bible
So they cried out with a loud voice [to get Baal’s attention] and cut themselves with swords and lances in accordance with their custom, until the blood flowed out on them.

Christian Standard Bible
They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them.

American Standard Version
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And they called in a loud voice, and they fought, according to their custom, with swords and with lances, until their blood poured out upon them.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their custom with knives and lancets until the blood gushed out upon them.

Contemporary English Version
The prophets kept shouting louder and louder, and they cut themselves with swords and knives until they were bleeding. This was the way they worshiped,

Douay-Rheims Bible
So they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till they were all covered with blood.

English Revised Version
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So they shouted louder. They also cut themselves with swords and spears until their blood flowed. (This is what their ritual called for.)

Good News Translation
So the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers, according to their ritual, until blood flowed.

International Standard Version
So the prophets of Baal cried even louder and slashed themselves with swords and lances until their blood gushed out all over them, as was their custom.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with swords and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them.

Literal Standard Version
And they call with a loud voice, and cut themselves, according to their ordinance, with swords and with spears, until a flowing of blood [is] on them;

Majority Standard Bible
So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.

New American Bible
They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears according to their ritual until blood gushed over them.

NET Bible
So they yelled louder and, in accordance with their prescribed ritual, mutilated themselves with swords and spears until their bodies were covered with blood.

New Revised Standard Version
Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them.

New Heart English Bible
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with swords and spears, until the blood gushed out on them.

Webster's Bible Translation
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

World English Bible
They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

Young's Literal Translation
And they call with a loud voice, and cut themselves, according to their ordinance, with swords and with spears, till a flowing of blood is on them;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Elijah on Mount Carmel
27At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, “Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!” 28So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them. 29Midday passed, and they kept on raving until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no response; no one answered, no one paid attention.…

Cross References
Leviticus 19:28
You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy 14:1
You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

1 Kings 18:27
At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, "Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!"

Isaiah 44:17
From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, "Save me, for you are my god."


Treasury of Scripture

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out on them.

cut themselves

Leviticus 19:28
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy 14:1
Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

Micah 6:7
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

the blood gushed out upon them.

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Aloud Blood Cried Cries Custom Cut Flowing Gushed Knives Louder Manner Ordinance Shouted Slashed Spears Streaming Swords Themselves Voice Way
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Aloud Blood Cried Cries Custom Cut Flowing Gushed Knives Louder Manner Ordinance Shouted Slashed Spears Streaming Swords Themselves Voice Way
1 Kings 18
1. In the extremity of famine Elijah, sent to Ahab, meets good Obadiah
9. Obadiah brings Ahab to Elijah
17. Elijah, reproving Ahab, by fire from heaven convinces Baal's prophets
41. Elijah, by prayer obtaining rain, follows Ahab to Jezreel














(28) Lancets--should be lances. This self-mutilation, common in Oriental frenzy, was possibly a portion, or a survival, of human sacrifice, in the notion that self-torture and shedding of human blood must win Divine favour--a delusion not confined to heathen religions, though excusable only in them.

Verse 28. - And they cried aloud [Heb. in a great voice, as above. It was not that they took Elijah's words au serieux, but his scorn led them to redouble their efforts, if only to testify their faith in their god. The frantic cries of the Greek Easter (see Porter, 1:168; Conder, 176-178) in Jerusalem, the prayers of the pilgrims for the descent of the holy fire, may help us to realize the scene here described], and cut themselves [cf. Deuteronomy 14:1; Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 41:5; Jeremiah 47:5] after their manner [Keil quotes from Movers, Phoniz. 1. pp. 682-83, a description of the religious dances offered to the Dea Syria. "A discordant howling opens the scene. Then they rush wildly about in perfect confusion, with their heads bowed down to the ground, but always revolving in circles, so that the loosened hair drags through the mire; then they begin to bite their arms, and end with cutting themselves with the two-edged swords which they are in the habit of carrying. A new scene then opens. One of them, who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans," etc. In the "Contemporary Review," vol. 27, pp. 371 sqq., Bishop Caldwell has graphically described the devil dances of Southern India - a description which may be read with profit in this connexion. One sentence may be transcribed here: "He cuts and hacks and hews himself, and not unfrequently kills himself there and then." Kitto mentions "the furious gashes which the Persians inflict upon themselves in their frantic annual lamentation for Hossein." Rawlinson says this was also common among the Carians and Phrygians] with knives [Heb. swords] and lancets [Heb. lances, spears. The A.V. is misleading. The instruments they used were weapons of heavy-armed troops. For רְמָחִים, see Numbers 25:7; Judges 5:8; Jeremiah 46:4], till the blood gushed out upon them. [Heb. until the shedding of blood upon them. It is perfectly clear that their faith in Baal was sincere and profound. Making due allowance for the fact that they were under the eyes of their king and patron, and of representatives of the entire people, it is still impossible to doubt their sincerity. Some of them, it is probable, were Phoenicians. "Of one thing I am assured - the devil dancer never shams excitement" (Caldwell).]

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
So they shouted louder
וַֽיִּקְרְאוּ֙ (way·yiq·rə·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7121: To call, proclaim, read

and cut
וַיִּתְגֹּֽדְדוּ֙ (way·yiṯ·gō·ḏə·ḏū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1413: To crowd, to gash

themselves with knives
בַּחֲרָב֖וֹת (ba·ḥă·rā·ḇō·wṯ)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 2719: Drought, a cutting instrument, as a, knife, sword

and lances,
וּבָֽרְמָחִ֑ים (ū·ḇā·rə·mā·ḥîm)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 7420: A lance, the iron point

as [was] their custom,
כְּמִשְׁפָּטָ֔ם (kə·miš·pā·ṭām)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4941: A verdict, a sentence, formal decree, divine law, penalty, justice, privilege, style

until
עַד־ (‘aḏ-)
Preposition
Strong's 5704: As far as, even to, up to, until, while

the blood
דָּ֖ם (dām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1818: Blood, of man, an animal, the juice of the grape, bloodshed

gushed out
שְׁפָךְ־ (šə·p̄āḵ-)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 8210: To spill forth, to expend, to sprawl out

upon them.
עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ (‘ă·lê·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against


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OT History: 1 Kings 18:28 They cried aloud and cut themselves after (1Ki iKi i Ki 1 Kg 1kg)
1 Kings 18:27
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