The Book of Malachi prophesies Elijah's return "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD,"[15] making him a harbinger of the Messiah and of the eschaton in various faiths that revere the Hebrew Bible.

References to Elijah appear in Sirach, the New Testament, the Mishnah and Talmud, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, and Baháʼí writings.

Elijah in Islam appears in the Quran as a prophet and messenger of God, where his biblical narrative of preaching against the worshipers of Baal is recounted in a concise form.

Omri, King of Israel, continued policies dating from the reign of Jeroboam, contrary to religious law, that were intended to reorient religious focus away from Jerusalem: encouraging the building of local temple altars for sacrifices, appointing priests from outside the family of the Levites, and allowing or encouraging temples dedicated to Baal, an important deity in ancient Canaanite religion.

[21][22] Omri achieved domestic security with a marriage alliance between his son Ahab and princess Jezebel, a worshipper of Baal and the daughter of the king of Sidon in Phoenicia.

[b] These solutions brought security and economic prosperity to Israel for a time,[25] but did not bring peace with the Israelite prophets, who advocated a strict deuteronomic interpretation of the religious law.

[31] After Elijah's confrontation with Ahab, God tells him to flee out of Israel, to a hiding place by the brook Chorath, east of the Jordan, where he will be fed by ravens.

While on his way, Elijah meets Obadiah, the head of Ahab's household, who had hidden a hundred Jewish prophets from Jezebel's violent purge.

[41] Elijah flees to Beersheba in Judah, continues alone into the wilderness, and finally sits down under a shrub, praying for death and eventually falling asleep.

The biblical texts present his career through the eyes of popular legend and subsequent theological reflection, which consider him a personality of heroic proportions.

At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and to restore the tribes of Jacob.Elijah's glory is honoured in the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).

"[92] In the New Testament, Jesus would say for those who believed, John the Baptist was Elijah, who would come before the "great and terrible day" as predicted by Malachi.

In Western Christianity, Elijah is commemorated as a saint with a feast day on 20 July by the Roman Catholic Church[103] and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Elijah has been venerated as the patron saint of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 26 August 1752,[105] replacing George of Lydda at the request of Bishop Pavao Dragičević.

In 1725, the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the reign of Pope Benedict XIII, allowed the Carmelites to place a statue of the Prophet Elias in St. Peter's Basilica, denoting him as their founder.

[113] In the 17th century the Bollandist Society, whose declared aim was to search out and classify materials concerning the saints venerated by the Church, and to print what seemed to be the most reliable sources of information [114] entered into controversy with the Carmelites on this point.

[133] Among other peoples of the Caucasus, including the Ossetians and Kabardians, Elijah is understood as a kind of thunder-divinity named Uac-illa, Ilia, or Yeli, and was traditionally invoked in "choppa" ritual associated with lightning strikes and certain mental illnesses.

[134] If a person or animal was struck by lightning, a circle dance was performed immediately around the site, even if the storm was still ongoing, and Elijah's name was invoked alongside a nonsense word "choppa" or "coppay".

If the victim survived, their lives were dedicated to Elijah: human survivors were prophets, while animals were released with a mark so that others would know not to take them home.

While neither the Bible nor the Quran mentions the genealogy of Elijah, some scholars of Islam believe he may have come from the priestly family of the prophet Aaron.

"[153] Muslim literature and tradition recounts that Elijah preached to the Kingdom of Israel, ruled over by Ahab and later his son Ahaziah.

[154] Elijah is believed to have preached with zeal to Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who according to Muslim tradition was partly responsible for the worship of false idols in this area.

Muslims believe that it was because the majority of people refused to listen to Elijah that Elisha had to continue preaching the message of God to Israel after him.

[158] Further, It is narrated in Kitab al-Kafi that Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq was reciting the prostration of Ilyas (Elijah) in the Syrian language and began to weep.

[168] Both Elijah and John the Baptist are considered to be Lesser Prophets, whose stations are below that of a Manifestation of God like Jesus Christ, Buddha, the Báb or Bahá'u'lláh.

[170] Objections to the traditional translation are that ravens are ritually unclean[171] as well as physically dirty; it is difficult to imagine any method of delivery of the food which is not disgusting.

Prof. John Gray chooses Arabs, saying "We adopt this reading solely because of its congruity with the sequel, where Elijah is fed by an alien Phoenician woman.

"[173] Hugo Gressmann suggested that the fire that destroyed the offering and altar was lightning, while Ferdinand Hitzig and others[174] thought the water poured on the sacrifice and into the ditch might have been flammable naphtha.

[173] Julian Morgenstern rejects the idea of sympathetic magic, but supports the interpretation of white naphtha possibly ignited by a glass or mirror to focus the sun's rays, citing other mentions of sacred fire, as in 2 Maccabees 1:18–22.

[191] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that Elijah returned on 3 April 1836 in an appearance to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, fulfilling the prophecy in Malachi.