This haftarah opens immediately after Elijah's triumph over the prophets of Baal at Carmel, with Elijah running ahead of Ahab's chariot to Jezreel, only to learn that Jezebel has sworn to kill him within a day in retaliation. Despite his recent overwhelming victory, Elijah flees into the wilderness alone, exhausted and afraid, and asks to die, collapsing under a broom tree until an angel wakes him twice to eat and drink before he continues on a forty day journey to Horeb.
At the mountain, God asks Elijah what he is doing there, and Elijah answers that he alone remains faithful while the rest of Israel has abandoned the covenant and now seeks his life as well. A great wind, an earthquake and a fire pass by, but the text specifies God is not in any of them, and only after these comes a still, small voice, in which God repeats the same question and receives the same answer from Elijah.
The haftarah closes with God instructing Elijah to anoint Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his own prophetic successor, reassuring him that seven thousand in Israel have not bowed to Baal, and Elijah finds Elisha plowing and casts his mantle over him, marking the transfer of his role to the next generation.