Another reason for the people’s silence is that their spiritual blindness was so deep that they had no idea how to tell the difference between a true and false God. This should not have been the case. The Lord had sent the ten plagues upon Egypt to deliver their ancestors from bondage; he had divided the Red Sea so that Israel could walk safely through it; he had performed multiple signs and wonders in the wilderness; he had destroyed great kings, dried up the Jordan River, and given them victory over peoples stronger and mightier than they.
Elijah’s declaration, I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord,
must be read in its rhetorical and public sense rather than as an absolute sense of prophetic existence. Elijah is not denying the existence of the hundred prophets hidden by Obadiah (1 Kings 18:4, 1 Kings 18:13). Rather, he is identifying himself as the sole publicly active representative of Yahweh in Israel—the only prophet standing openly before king, people, and rival cult.
This public aloneness is part of the drama. The prophet of the living God stands solitary, while Baal’s prophets swarm in overwhelming numbers. The contrast is intentional: truth does not depend on majority, institutional support, or cultural momentum. Elijah’s isolation exposes Israel’s apostasy and heightens the theological stakes of the confrontation.
One thing Elijah does throughout the entire contest is present the situation in a way that makes him appear to be the one at a disadvantage. He never allows the people or the pagan prophets to claim that he overwhelmed them by numbers or by strength. Elijah deliberately frames himself as the lone servant of the LORD standing against many, so that the outcome cannot be attributed to human advantage but only to the power of God.
Elijah then sets out the procedure for the contest. There are to be two bulls: one for Baal and his prophets, and one for the Lord and Elijah. Each bull is to be slaughtered and placed on its respective altar, with wood arranged beneath it—but no fire is to be used. This final instruction is where the true challenge lies. It is also the detail that may have given the prophets of Baal a psychological boost. After all, they served a storm god, a deity they believed controlled lightning. In their minds, calling down fire should have been an easy task for Baal.
The people respond, It is well spoken.
Their agreement is significant. Elijah is not forcing a private demonstration; he is securing public consent to the terms of judgment. Israel becomes a witness to its own verdict.
This moment also reveals the spiritual condition of the nation: they are willing to let the gods compete, as though the Lord and Baal were comparable options. Their neutrality is itself a form of apostasy. Elijah’s challenge is designed to shatter that neutrality.
22 Et Elie dit au peuple: Je suis resté seul des prophètes de l'Eternel, et il y a quatre cent cinquante prophètes de Baal.