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1Ki_18:1-46
7And 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? 8And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 9And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay 10me? As the Lord [Jehovah] 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; 11he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 12And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah] 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 [Jehovah] from my youth. 13Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord [Jehovah], how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s [Jehovah] prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 14And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. 15And Elijah said, As the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to-day.
16So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? 18And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord [Jehovah], and thou hast followed Baalim. 19Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table. 20So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
21And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord [Jehovah] be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. 22Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord [Jehovah]; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other 24bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord [Jehovah]: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. 25And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. 26And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. 27And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. 28And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives [swords] and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. 29And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
30And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord [Jehovah] that was broken down. 31And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: 32and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord [Jehovah]: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. 33And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. 34And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. 35And the water ran around about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. 36And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord [Jehovah] God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37Hear me, O Lord [Jehovah], hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord [Jehovah] God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 38Then the fire of the Lord [Jehovah] fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord [Jehovah], he is the God; the Lord [Jehovah], he is the God. 40And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
41And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. 42So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, 43and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. 44And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. 45And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. 46And the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
1Ki_18:2-6. And there was a sore famine in Samaria. From here to 1Ki_18:6 there is a parenthetical remark, for “an explanation of the circumstances which brought about the meeting between Elijah and Ahab” (Keil). Even in the residence in Samaria the famine was so pressing during the drought that the king himself, with his “palace-master” (see on 1Ki_4:6)—“the governor of his house”—traversed the land to find food for his horses and mules. “Entirely without reference to the Old Testament, Menandros (Joseph. Antiq.8, 13, 2) makes mention of a severe drought of a year under the Syrian king Ithobal, a contemporary of Ahab” (Ewald). The name Obadiah is a proper name of frequent occurrence in the Old Testament (1Ch_3:21; 1Ch_7:3; 1Ch_8:38; 1Ch_9:16; 2Ch_17:7; 2Ch_34:12; Ezr_8:9, &c.), and does not here, on account of 1Ki_18:4, mean, as Thenius supposes, “chosen.” The prophets who are mentioned in 1Ki_18:4 were, for the most part, “prophet-scholars,” i. e., members of the association of the prophets (Prophetenvereine), cf. on 2 Kings 2. If Obadiah alone delivered a hundred, their number must have been considerable. Their persecution and extermination was the work of the fanatical, idolatrous Jezebel, whom Ahab allowed to rule and manage. Hess and Menken suppose that she was incited thereto by her idolatrous priests, who represented to her that the public calamity would not end until the prophets, from the secret influence of whom it proceeded, were put out of the way. This conjecture, however, is not necessary, on account of the character of Jezebel, who, from the start, was bent upon the abolition of the Jehovah-worship. The caverns in which Obadiah concealed the prophets were certainly not near Samaria, but were, perhaps, on Mount Carmel, “which is full of clefts and grottoes” (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 212).
1Ki_18:7-16. And as Obadiah was in the way, &c. He recognized the prophet at once by his peculiar clothing (cf. 2Ki_1:7-8). The profound reverence which he showed to him allows us to conclude that there was a personal acquaintance, and, in any event, it is an evidence of the high consideration in which even then Elijah was held, at least upon the part of the worshippers of Jehovah, which could scarcely be accounted for only on the ground of his prediction of the drought (1Ki_17:1). The words äַàַúָּä æֶä cannot be translated, Art thou not my lord Elijah? (Luther), or with the Sept., åἰ óὺ åἶ áὐôüò êýñéÝ ìïõ ’ Çëßá ; for he had already recognized him, and had fallen on his face before him. It is rather a question of wonder: Art thou, who hast been looked for everywhere in vain, here? (1Ki_18:10). The reply of Obadiah in 1Ki_18:9 is explained by 1Ki_18:12. The statement in 1Ki_18:10, that Ahab had set on foot inquiries after the prophet in every kingdom, is “an hyperbole prompted by inward excitement and fear” (Keil), but which, nevertheless, is an evidence of the great bitterness and hatred of Ahab. From the anxiety of Obadiah lest the spirit of Jehovah should suddenly carry the prophet away, it has been concluded that something like it had previously occurred, but which has not been related to us (Von Gerlach, Seb. Schmidt, and others). Keil remarks, on the other hand: Elijah was not snatched away after the prediction of the drought, and there is no more reason for supposing a case of this kind during the interval, when he was concealed from his enemies. Obadiah certainly had not in his mind a simple going away, nor does the expression suggest “a wind-storm” (Dereser), nor a mere inward movement from above (Olshaus., Acts viii. 39), but divine power. The concluding statement in 1Ki_18:12 does not mean he has not as “a God-fearing man and a protector of the prophets any special favor to expect at the hands of Ahab” (Keil), but rather he believes that, as a true servant of Jehovah, for his own and for the sake of the prophet, he deserves, least of all, death. He does not express a doubt of the truthfulness of Elijah, but he supposes that “he will be exposed to a danger from which God will rescue him by an abreption, while he himself will thereby be placed in the greatest peril in respect of Ahab” (Menken). By the expression in 1Ki_18:13, he seeks to justify his refusal to fulfil Elijah’s commission, and to say that he will suffer a death he does not merit, but he does not mean to boast of his action, or to claim any reward. The öְáָàåֹú with éְäåָֹä (see Keil on 1Sa_1:3), elevates the solemnity of the oath (cf. on 1Ki_17:1). äַéּåֹí means here: at this time, now (1Sa_14:33; 2Ki_4:8), not to-day (Luther, De Wette).
1Ki_18:17-20. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, &c. As Ahab went, at Obadiah’s instigation, to meet the prophet, and not the prophet to meet him, Ahab’s query does not mean “Dost thou dare to appear before me?” (Thenius), but, rather, Do I meet thee at last, thou bringer of trouble? òָëַø does not, as in Gen_34:30; Jos_6:18; Jos_7:25, mean here, to perplex, as Luther translates. Ahab lays all the blame of the famine upon Elijah, not merely because he had predicted the drought, but he had added that it would come to an end only at his word, without thinking that the prophet had done this only in the name and at the command of Jehovah. In the reply of Elijah (1Ki_18:18) the plural form áְּòָìִéí is not, with Gesenius, to be understood of images or statues of Baal, but of the various surnames of Baal according to their special signification—Baal-Berith, Baal-Zebul (Winer, R- W.-B. I. s. 120). Elijah’s desire (in 1Ki_18:19) probably admits of a closer explanation in respect of its ground and purpose; it was not so much on account of Ahab as to influence the whole people to another course—it was to bring all Israel to a decision. That was the right point of time when the longing for deliverance from the famine was universal. Elijah appointed Carmel as the place of assemblage, probably because its situation was central, and it was also near the sea, from which quarter rain-clouds came. There was, moreover, an altar to Jehovah there, as on other conspicuous high places, but which, like other such altars, had been thrown down in consequence of the introduction of the Baal-worship (cf. 1Ki_18:30 and 1Ki_19:10). The whole of Israel, i. e., the heads of the tribes and families, and the elders as the representatives of the people (1Ki_8:1-62). The prophets of Baal (cf. 1Ki_18:26 sq.) are the priests of Baal, who were likewise the god’s soothsayers and foretellers. As the male divinity, Baal had more priests than the female. That the Astarte-priests ate at Jezebel’s table, i. e., were entirely supported by her (see 1Ki_2:7), is expressly remarked, because therein her blind, fanatical passion for the worship of idols is shown over against the prophets of Jehovah, whom she persecuted and murdered (1Ki_18:4). When, according to 1Ki_18:20, the enraged and excited king at once acceded to the demand of Elijah, this is quite in harmony with his character as he often exhibited it subsequently. He bowed before the spiritual supremacy of the prophet, which impressed him. Notwithstanding his apparent scorn, he had a secret fear of Elijah since the prediction of the drought had been verified (1Ki_17:1), and all the sacrifices of the priests of Baal to avert the famine had been in vain.
1Ki_18:21. And Elijah came, &c. Ewald, whom Thenius follows on the ground of the Septuag., translates the question of the prophet to the people: “How long will ye go limping on both hocks, i. e., always staggering about hither and thither insecurely between truth and falsehood, Jahve and Baal?” But ñòôéí is never used in the sense of ἰãíýáé , i. e., hocks, which translation Schleusner properly pronounces a mera conjectura. The root ñָòַó means to divide, to dissever, and all the derivatives point back to this signification. The ñֵòֲôִéí , Psa_119:113, are those which are divided within themselves, the double-minded or ambiguous. In Eze_31:6 : ñְòַôּåֹú means branches, because these are the divided tree, and in Isa_2:21; Isa_57:5, the clefts of the rocks are named ñְòִôֵé äַñְּìָòִéí . The Vulg. hence translates rightly, Usquequo claudicatis in duas partes? Keil, “up to the two parties (Jehovah and Baal).” This agrees perfectly with the word ôָñַç , i. e., to go over from one to another, and òì is here with ôñç , as in 1Ki_18:26, where it cannot possibly mean “to the.” But when Keil remarks further: The people were wishing to harmonize the Jehovah worship and that of Baal, not to stand, by means of the Baal worship, in hostile opposition to Jehovah, he is evidently mistaken. The people rather were divided between the two forms of worship, that of Jehovah and that of Baal; to the latter belonged also the Astarte-cultus, which it was impossible to identify or reconcile with the Jehovah-worship. The persecution and extermination of the Jehovah prophets by Jezebel must have shown the people, most explicitly, that between the two religions the most decisive antagonism existed. Jeroboam’s calf-worship might still seem to be Jehovah-worship, but the Baal and Astarte worship, never. The large number of the “sons of the prophets” shows that, in spite of Ahab and Jezebel, the people were divided into two parties.
1Ki_18:22-25. It by no means follows from the ìְáַãִּé “that those also who had been concealed by Obadiah were discovered and destroyed” (Thenius). cf. 2Ki_2:3; 2Ki_2:5. Elijah means to say: All the other prophets have been murdered, or are reduced to a state of inactivity: I stand here alone over against four hundred and fifty priests of Baal; what, humanly speaking, can one do against so many? Be this as it may, the issue will decide all the more certainly with whom rests the Right éָúַø as in Gen. 32:35; Jos_18:2. To the four hundred and fifty Baal priests the Sept. adds: êáὶ ïἱ ðñïöῆôáé , ôïῦ ἄëóïõò ôåôñáêüóéïé , which Thenius holds to be original, but is here evidently filled out from 1Ki_18:19. In 1Ki_18:25 and in 1Ki_18:40, moreover, the priests of Baal only are named. A thrice repeated omission of the Astarte-priests cannot be explained by the rule, a potiori fit, etc., least of all in 1Ki_18:40; they might indeed have been summoned, but under the protection of Jezebel they might have been able to escape the requisition of Ahab (Keil). As the issue was a decision between the worship of Jehovah and that of Baal, Elijah employed, in connection with it, an act of sacrifice, because both amongst the Jews and also the heathen, sacrifice was the explicit expression of all worship. The significance of fire in sacrifice was the reason why he suspended the decision upon the fire which should consume the offering; it wafts the sacrifice upwards, and, as it were, presents it to the deity. Should the latter send the fire, this would be a sign not only of power, but also that the sacrifice was accepted and well-pleasing. Besides this, fire, especially that which came from heaven, was the general symbol of deity. Baal also was the God of heaven, of the sun, and of fire (heaven-fire-sun-god). If he could not consume the offering, that would show him to be no God. The cutting in pieces, 1Ki_18:23; 1Ki_18:33, belongs, according to Lev_1:6, to the proper dressing of every burnt-offering. After the people had signified their agreement to the proposition of Elijah he proceeded further (1Ki_18:25); and, to avoid all appearance of encroachment or of partisanship, he allowed the priests of Baal a choice between the two “bullocks,” as also precedence in the act of sacrifice, giving as a reason: for ye are many.This was scarcely said “somewhat scoffingly” in the sense of “the crowd shall have the precedence! You are the prevailing religious party in Israel” (Menken), but wholly in earnest; he, only one, will take no advantage of the many; they shall not feel themselves slighted. When, too, as he himself knew in advance, the vanity, the nothingness of Baal became manifest, the impression produced by his offering would be all the greater, while inversely the priests of Baal, under every kind of pretext, would have wholly omitted the sacrifice.
1Ki_18:26-29. And they took the bullock, &c. By åַéְôַñְּçåּ the dance customary at heathen sacrifices is indeed suggested to us (see with Keil the passage from Herodian Hist. v. 3). The view prevails that limping, “in derision of the unaided sacrificial dance of the Baal priests,” stands here for dancing (Gesenius); but neither here nor in 1Ki_18:21 does it denote ridicule. It expresses only the reeling to and fro; “the dance, as we may infer from its climax in 1Ki_18:28-29, may have had somewhat of the bacchantic, reeling way about it” (Thenius); the Sept. has äéÝôñå÷ïí , the Vulgate transiliebant, and here ridicule disappears. This first follows in 1Ki_18:27; here we are simply informed of what actually happened. Elijah is not the subject in òָùָä ; it is impersonal. Nearly all the versions seem to have read, with many MSS., òָùׂåּ . In 1Ki_18:27 Elijah urges the Baal priests to cry louder, and gives as his chief reason: in your opinion he is the real, true God; he must be hindered in some way, so that, as yet, he has not heard you. The thrice repeated ëִּé heightens the effect of the discourse. ùִׂéçַ means neither loquitur (Vulg.), nor: he imagines (Luther), nor: ἀäïëåó÷ßá ἀõôῷ ἐóôßí (Sept.); but it denotes turning within one’s self, reflection, meditatio, and then, also, sadness (1Sa_1:16; Psa_142:3). Thenius: his head is full; perhaps, better yet: he is out of humor. ùִׂéâ the Vulg. wrongly gives: in diversario est; it means secessio (from ùׂåּâ to withdraw, 2Sa_1:22), euphemistic expression for: he is easing himself. Everything that Elijah here derisively attributes to Baal must not, with Movers (Rel. der Phöniz. s. 386), be regarded as that which the Baal priests actually believed of him as the sun-god (his journeys, labors, sleeping), for it had ceased to be a matter of sport. They cried louder (1Ki_18:28), so that Baal, by hearing, might stultify the derision. By åַéִּúְâֹּãְãåּ , we must not understand a mere “nicking with knives and punches” (Luther); for çֶøֶá means sword, and øֹîַç the lance belonging to heavy armor (Eze_39:9; Jer_46:4). The ôָּñַç , 1Ki_18:26, changed into a weapon-dance, which custom many ancient writers mention (cf. Doughty, Analect. Sacr. p. 176), and Movers (as cited s. 682), after them, describes more particularly. This custom assuredly has not, as Movers supposes, its reason in the consciousness of “committed sins,” but in the superstition that blood, especially the blood of priests, has a special virtue, moving, even compelling the divinity (Plutarch De superstit.: Bellonœ sacerdotes suo cruore sacrificant, cf. Symbol. des Mosais. Kultus II. s. 223, 262). In 1Ki_18:29, åַéִּúְðַáְּàåּ is commonly translated: and they raved; in the sense: their behavior reached to a sort of mania. But 1Sa_18:10; Jer_29:26, places to which an appeal is made, cannot prove that ðáà means, in itself, ìáßíåóèáé ; the Sept. never translating it so. The Baal priests are constantly called here ðְáִàִéí , and as such, they prepared the sacrifice, danced around the altar, called upon Baal, wounded themselves; all that they then did, and the time they consumed, is summed up when it is said that éִúְðַáְּàåּ ; this word does not refer to anything besides. Piscator: fuit vero quum prœteriisset meridies, ut prophetas agerent, &c. They went on with their various functions until past noon, yet without any result. îִðְçָä is here not specially food (vegetable) offering (Luther), but it denotes offering generally (Gen_4:3-5), and here the usual daily evening sacrifice, which, nevertheless, as is to be seen from 1Ki_18:36; 1Ki_18:40 sq., was not offered first at dusk, but before it (Num_28:4). The Sept. adds to 1Ki_18:29 : “And Elijah the Tishbite said to the prophets of the idols, Stand back! I will now make ready my offering. And they stood back and went away,” an addition which does not at all “bear the unmistakable stamp of genuineness” (Thenius), but is plainly a supplementary gloss.
1Ki_18:30-32. And Elijah said unto all the people, &c. Elijah did not, designedly, build a new altar, but repaired the old one (see above on 1Ki_18:19), and meant thereby to show that the issue of the day was the restoration of the ancient Jehovah-worship, for cultus is expressed synecdochice per altare (Petr. Martyr). He shows, moreover, still more explicitly the object of the restoration and renewal of the broken covenant (1Ki_19:10), in that, as Moses had once done at the conclusion of the covenant (Exo_24:4), in like manner he repaired the altar “with twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel.” This was a declaration in act, that the twelve tribes together constituted one people, that they had one God in common, and that Jehovah’s covenant was not concluded with two or with ten, but with the unit of the twelve tribes. Since the kingdom of the ten tribes named itself “Israel,” over against the other tribes, it is expressly remarked that Jacob, the one progenitor of the entire people, had received from Jehovah the name “Israel,” i. e., God’s soldier, because he commanded his entire house: Put away from you the strange gods (Gen_35:2; Gen_35:10 sq.). Only the people who did as he did had a claim to this name. In 1Ki_18:32 the áְּùֵׁí éְäåָֹä is not to be connected with the remote éִáְðֶä ; he built in the name, i. e., by the command, of Jehovah (for everything that he did, he did no less by the command of Jehovah), but with the immediately preceding îִæְáֵּçַ ; he built this that Jehovah might reveal and authenticate himself; as inversely, according to Exo_20:24, an altar was to be built where Jehovah had revealed and authenticated himself. The ditch was not designed as a hedge, “so that the people might not press too much upon the altar” (Starke); it was made rather to receive the water (1Ki_18:34-35), úְּòָìָç as , 2Ki_20:20; Isa_7:3; Isa_22:9; Isa_36:2; Eze_31:4, means properly aqueduct. Not only was the altar to be soaked, but it was to be surrounded with water, so as to remove all suspicion about the burning of the sacrifice. Impostures of this kind occurred certainly in later heathendom. The author of the Orat. in Eliam (I. p. 765), attributed to Chrysostom, says: “I speak as an eye-witness. In the altars of the idols, there are beneath the altar channels, and underneath a concealed pit; the deceivers enter these, and blow up a fire from beneath upon the altar, by which many are deceived, and believe that the fire comes from heaven.” The words ëְּáֵéú ñָàúַéִí æֶøַò are not altogether clear. Keil and Thenius translate: like the space whereon one can sow two seahs of grain. But áéú never signifies a superficies measure, but that which holds something; and one does not measure a ditch by a superficial space which it covers, but according to its capacity for holding; hence Gesenius here: a ditch which could hold two seahs. The ditch, then, was about as deep as the grain-measure containing two seahs. The seah is the third part of an ephah; according to Thenius, two Dresden pecks; according to Bertheau=661.92, according to Bunsen 338.13 Paris cubic inches. Without doubt the ditch was so near the altar that the water poured upon it flowed into it and remained there. Elijah took upon himself the preparation of the sacrifice, jure prophetico, minoribus legibus exsolutus, ut majores servaret (Grotius). The levitical priest was no longer in the kingdom of Israel (2Ch_11:13; 2Ch_13:9).
1Ki_18:33-35. And said, Fill four barrels (cad) &c., &c. ëַּã is a pail (Gen_24:14) without definite measure. The solemnity and the emphasis with which the prophet commands the soaking with water stamp this act as prophetic, i. e., as a significant religious act, done for some other than the merely negative purpose “of cutting away all ground of suspicion of the possibility of some cheat” (Keil). The form of the transaction shows this. For when the prophet orders thrice four cads of water poured upon an altar composed of thrice four stones, the intention—i. e., the significance of this combination of numbers—is unmistakable. The numbers three and four, as well singly as in their combination with each other, in seven and twelve, meet us constantly in the cultus, where the significance is beyond all question. (See above. Cf. my Symbol. des Mos. Kultus I. s. 150, 169, 193, 205.) But we can conclude nothing definitely, with full certainty, respecting the meaning of the prophetic act. Perhaps the abundant soaking of the altar bearing the sign-number of the Covenant people with 3×4 cads of water expresses what is promised in Deu_28:12 to the Covenant people if they observe the covenant: “Jehovah shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven, to give rain unto thy land in his season;” after, on account of the breach of the covenant, “thy heaven over thy head was brass, and the earth under thee was iron” (Deu_28:23). Elijah is not the subject to îִìֵּà 1Ki_18:35 (“he caused the trench to be filled with water,” as De Wette and Keil translate); but îָéִí , which also is elsewhere construed with the singular (Num_20:2; Num_24:7; Num_33:14; Gen_9:15); Luther: and the trench also was full of water. There was so much water that it ran over the altar and filled likewise the trench. The question, whence so much water could have been obtained, in such a drought, cannot shake the trustworthiness of the narrative. It is plain, from 1Ki_18:40, that the brook Kishon was near, and was not dried up. Its supply of water was very abundant. Cf. Jdg_5:21, and the passage from Brocard (in Winer, R.- W.-B. Bd. I. s. 660): Cison colligit plures aquas, quia a monte Ephraim et a locis Samariœ propinquioribus atque a toto campo Esdrelon confluunt plurimœ aquœ et recipiuntur in hunc unum torrentem. (Cf. also Robinson, Palest. III. p. 114, 116.) Carmel, moreover, was full of grottoes and caves (Winer, “some say 2,000”); if there were water anywhere, it would be there. Van de Velde (in Keil on the place) has proved that the place where the sacrifice was offered is at the ruin El Mohraka, and that here is a covered spring: “under a dark, vaulted roof, the water in such a spring is always cool, and the atmosphere cannot evaporate it. I can understand perfectly that while all other springs were dried up, here there continued to be an abundance of water, which Elijah poured so bountifully upon the altar.”—[Really this is very unsatisfactory, and not to the purpose.—E. H.]
1Ki_18:36-37. And at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, &c.—The time of day was that appointed for the daily sacrifice. In his prayer Elijah calls Jehovah, not his God, as in 1Ki_17:20 sq., but the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel (i. e., Jacob, 1Ki_18:31, with unmistakable reference to Exo_3:15). This designation of God points to him as the God who had concluded the covenant of promise with the progenitors of the entire people, and brings to mind the proofs of the grace which Israel had shared from the first. Here where the broken covenant was to be renewed and cemented afresh in this designation, both the assurance and the entreaty are expressed that the God who had declared himself to the patriarchs would now, as to these, so also to his whole people, declare himself. In Israel, i. e., that thou alone art God, and as such wilt be recognized and honored in Israel. And I am thy servant, i. e., that I do not speak and act in my own cause and in human strength, but in thy cause (Septuag. äéÜ óå ), and in thy name, as well in respect of what has happened hitherto as what shall happen hereafter. The äֲñִáֹּúָ in 1Ki_18:37 does not depend upon áִּé , and is not to be translated, “so turn thou their heart around” (De Wette), but “that that which shall happen is ordained by thee for their conversion” (Thenius).
1Ki_18:38-40. Then the fire of the Lord fell, &c., i. e., a fire effected, produced by Jehovah. The text certainly does not say, as is commonly thought, a stroke of lightning from heaven; and Keil remarks, as against this opinion, a natural stroke “could not have produced such an effect.” We can conclude nothing definite of the how of the wonder. To give full expression to the intensity of the fire it is stated that even the stones and the ground were burned, i. e., according to Le Clerc, in calcem redegit. Usually it is supposed that the earth means that which was thrown up in the building of the altar, but it can also be that with which the altar, built of twelve stones, was filled up (Exo_20:24). The impression which the event produced upon the people was overpowering, and must have filled them all with contempt and wrath against the priests of Baal, so that Ahab, even had he desired it, could not have prevented their destruction. That Elijah did not slaughter them in his own person is self-evident; he demanded it on the ground of the law (Deu_13:9). Josephus, ἀðÝêôåéíáí ôïὺò ðñïöÞôáò ’ ÇëéÜ ôïῦôï ðáñáéíÝóáíôïò . It is more than rash when Menzel maintains that the people seized the Baal priests (we must remember that there were 450 of them), and “delivered them to the prophet to be slain by his own hand.” The Kishon empties itself at the foot of Carmel into the sea. Not where the sacrifice was offered were the Baal priests to be put to death, but by the stream which could carry their blood and corpses from the land and lose them in the sea.
1Ki_18:41-45. And Elijah said unto Ahab, &c. From the words, Get thee up, it follows that Ahab had gone to Kishon, and was present at the execution of his Baal priests; but he had scarcely joined in the shout of the people (1Ki_18:39). Whether the words “eat and drink” are to be interpreted as derisive (Krummacher, Thenius) is very doubtful. The prophet may well have derided the dead idol Baal; but that he should have mocked the king, whom he wished to win over, is scarcely credible, and does not agree with what is mentioned in 1Ki_18:46. According to Ewald, Elijah invited him “to eat of the sacrifice offered to Jehovah, and thereby to strengthen himself;” but the offering, apart from the consideration that it was a burnt-offering, of which nothing was eaten, was entirely consumed (1Ki_18:39). Others think that the king had eaten nothing during the suspense of the issue of the contest, from the morning until the evening; hence Elijah advised him to return quickly, before the coming storm hindered him, to the place of the sacrifice, where preparation had been made for his needs (Keil, Calw. Bib.). But the sense of the words of the prophet was, Be of good heart (Luk_12:19). Israel has turned back again to his God, soon the famine will come to an end; already I hear (in spirit) the rain rushing. øֹàùׁ (1Ki_18:42) does not mean here top, summit, but it denotes the outermost promontory towards the sea. Both Elijah and Ahab went from Kishon “up;” the former betook himself to the promontory, which was not so high as the place where the altar stood, and Ahab had his tent. Hence Elijah could say to his servant: Go up and say to Ahab, &c. To the promontory, however, Elijah betook himself, because thence one could look far across the sea, and first be assured when rain-clouds were forming in the distance. Here he bowed himself down and concealed his face, to abstract his eyes from everything outward and visible, and to turn himself wholly and completely to what was inward. It was the natural, involuntary expression of sinking into the most earnest, wrestling prayer; and there is no reason why, with Keil, we should refer to the dervishes, amongst whom Shaw and Chardin have found similar prayer-postures. Elijah did not wish, in order to be alone in prayer, and so to strengthen himself, to look at the sea; he commissioned his servant with that. Probably he promised to give him information in a very short time; and when the servant, at the outset, saw nothing, he said to him, Go again seven times, i. e., make no mistake, though it be a matter of seven times. Seven times is here as in Mat_18:21; cf. Psa_119:164; Psa_12:7; Pro_24:16. Elijah wished also to be informed of the first appearing of a cloud before any one else observed it, to notify Ahab, and to convince him that the rain, as he had predicted in 1Ki_17:1, would be the consequence of his prophetic word (prayer). Thenius remarks on 1Ki_18:44 : “A very little cloud on the farthest horizon is, according to sea accounts, often the herald of stormy weather.” The doubled òַãÎëֹּä in 1Ki_18:45, according to Maurer and others, means: until so and so far, and is a form of speech borrowed from the quick moving of the hand also: before a man turns his hand. But the rain did not come so swiftly. According to Exo_7:16, and Isa_17:14, òַãÎëֹּä means: until now, up to this moment. Gesenius: in the mean while; so also De Wette and Winer.
1Ki_18:45. And ran before Ahab, &c. [But Ahab went towards Jezreel.] He had there a summer palace (1Ki_21:2). The city was situated in the tribe Issachar (Isa_19:18), in the elevated plane of the same name, about from five to six miles (seventeen to twenty Eng.) distant from Carmel. He betook himself thither, because Jezebel was then at this summer residence, and he wished to let her know the news (1Ki_19:1). The form of expression, the hand of Jehovah, &c., 1Ki_18:46, occurs also in 2Ki_3:15; Eze_1:3; Eze_3:14; Eze_3:22; Eze_8:1; Eze_33:22; Eze_37:1; and as in all these places it denotes an inward impulse excited by God, so there is no reason why here it should be understood of a wonderful accession of natural bodily strength, which enabled him, as the older interpreters thought, to run in advance of the royal chariot, as it required the swiftest course (J. Lange, Calmet, and others). Over and above the ordinary use of the form of expression, what makes against it is, that it does not stand before åַéָּøָõ , but before åַéְùַׁðֵּí ; but for the girding of the loins no extraordinary strength was requisite. The prophet concluded, from a higher divine impulse, to accompany Ahab, and made himself ready. The object and motive was neither to bring the king unharmed to his residence (S. Schmidt), nor “to furnish him a proof of his humility” (Keil), or “to serve him in this fashion as a courier” (Berleb. Bib.); rather he went before him “as his warning conscience” (Sartorius), as “a living tablet, reminding him of all the great things which the God of Israel had done by his prophets” (Krummacher). There “was reason for supposing that he (Ahab) would cast off the yoke of his scandalous wife, and give himself thenceforth wholly to Jehovah. The prophet wished to stand by his side, counselling and helping him in his resolution, and to miss no opportunity when the king, left to himself, might become a victim to the corrupting influence of Jezebel” (Von Gerlach). The servant whom Elijah had with him on Carmel (1Ki_18:43), and whom, on the flight from Jezreel into the wilderness, he left at Beersheba (1Ki_19:3), must have been with him on the road from Carmel to Jezreel; so much the less can we suppose that a miracle carried the prophet thither.
2. The decision whether Baal or Jehovah be the true God was not brought about in the way of indoctrination, or by a warning and threatening discourse; it is connected rather with an actual declaration of Jehovah’s, prayed for from him. This mode of decision was not chosen accidentally or arbitrarily, but was founded in the nature of the Old Testament economy, and corresponded with the special relations there prevailing. The Old Testament religion recognizes Him only as the true, living God, who declares and reveals himself as such. The gods of the heathen, who serve the creature instead of the Creator (Rom_1:25), are deified nature-forces and world-powers. Over against these, the God who can create as He wills, who has made heaven and earth and all that therein is, reveals and declares Himself thereby, in that He proclaims His absolute power over all created things, and his infinite exaltation above nature and the world. Such declarations (authentications) are, in Scripture language, “wonders.” Jehovah as the only true and living God is hence so often designated as the God “who alone doeth wonders” (Psa_72:18; Psa_77:15; Psa_86:10; Psa_98:1; Psa_136:4); He is not bound up in the laws and forces of nature, but is absolutely independent of it, both as its Creator and also its sovereign. By the “wonder” it is that He stands above all the gods of the heathen, which, over against Him, are but deified nature-powers, absolutely without (personal) power, and can do no “wonders.” The conception of the self-declaring and of the revelation of God is connected, in the God-consciousness of the Israelites, with the conception of the wonder, and every extraordinary declaration is accompanied, more or less, by wonders; as the choice to be a peculiar people, the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the law on Sinai, which were prized as tangible witnesses of the true, living God, and were placed beside the creation. As now the decision was to be made upon Carmel, whether Jehovah or Baal (i. e. deified human nature-force) were the true living God, so here there was a self-declaration of Jehovah as of the God who is lifted up above the world and all that is in it, i. e., who doeth wonders. It was a nature-wonder which brought the people (especially Israel, inclined to nature-life, see above) to the confession: Jehovah, He is the God! and as here the matter involved was a devotion and prayer, this wonder was connected with sacrifice, the palpable expression and centre of all prayer. It is well worth our while to notice the difference between the Israelitish God-consciousness and that of the modern deistic or rationalistic. The latter knows nothing of “the wonder” and pronounces it absolutely impossible. To it, the just true God is He who doeth no wonders, i. e., who is bound up with the laws of nature and of the world, and, consequently, cannot declare and reveal himself in his absolute being above the world, and in His creative omnipotence. According to the Israelitish conception of God, such a God is not the living, but a dead, powerless god, because he is not lifted absolutely above the world. That God works wonders, and through them announces and reveals Himself, does not rest upon a false, low notion of the divine being, but, on the contrary, presupposes the loftiest conception of God.
3. The prophet Elijah appears, in the present portion of his history, both at the acme of his activity as the restorer of the broken covenant, and also in his whole personal grandeur as the peculiar and true hero amongst the prophets of the Old Testament. All that he said and did gives evidence of a courage and strength of faith which is scarcely paralleled in the entire history of the divine economy. To the call: Go show thyself to Ahab, he is obedient, without questioning and objections about the consequences, being assured that not a hair can fall from his head without the will of God. While Obadiah himself, who still retained the favor of the king, trembled before his wrath, and was afraid of his life, Elijah goes fearlessly to meet his angry, powerful foe, who had already sought for him everywhere in vain, and who had permitted the murder of so many prophets; and when Ahab meets him in a stern and threatening way, he is not terrified, he does not bow down, but declares boldly to his face: Thou art the cause of all the misery of Israel. Alone, and without any human protection, he went to Carmel to meet all Israel and the 450 Baal-priests, his bitterest enemies. He does not flatter the people, but puts to their conscience the cutting question, How long halt ye upon both sides? and with the army of priests he undertakes to do battle alone. He ridicules their idols and their whole conduct. The only weapon he employs in the contest is prayer; before the vast assemblage he calls upon his Lord and God, as humbly, so equally confidently. He is assured of an answer. After the decision from on high is obtained, and all the people returned to the God of their fathers, he hands over, resolutely, the propagators of the idolatry to judgment, and his heavy task is done. Then first he beseeches Jehovah, in the solitude, that He will be gracious again to the repentant people, and will relieve them from their distress. When the longed-for rain comes on, he advises the departure of the king, and in joyful hope of further fruits of this fought-for victory, refreshed and quickened, he runs before him to the residence in Jezreel, where Jezebel the murderess of the prophets was sojourning. Independent now as Elijah appears in everything, there are analogies with the history of him to whom, as the founder of the covenant, its restorer naturally points. Like Elijah, Moses also dwelt for a long time amongst strangers, and in retirement receives the call: Go hence, I will send thee to Pharaoh, &c. (Exed. 1Ki_3:11); he concludes the covenant before and with the people collected at Mount Sinai; he builds an altar with twelve stones and offers there a sacrifice; the whole people, with one voice, answer him: All the words which Jehovah hath spoken will we do, &c. (Exo_24:3 sq.); as by the erection of the golden calf the covenant was broken, he caused the Levites, who had polluted themselves by the worship of the calf, to be punished; but then he earnestly beseeches Jehovah to turn away the punishment from the people, and again to be gracious unto them (Exodus 32).
4. That Elijah ridiculed the calling upon Baal might seem unworthy of a prophet and man of God, from whom rather sympathy with error might be expected. But this ridicule did not proceed at all from a frivolous sentiment; it was rather the expression of the gravest religious resoluteness and of the profoundest earnestness. Over against the one God, to whom only true being appertains ( éäéä ), all other gods are not, to all of whom, in common, the conception of nothingness belongs, and who are to be designated with various expressions as not being, cf. àֱìִéìִí , Lev_19:4; Lev_26:4; àָåֶï , àַéִï , Isa_41:24; Isa_41:29; çֶáֶì , Deu_32:21; Jer_2:5; Jer_8:19, &c. The most resolute contempt and rejection of idolatry is thus expressed, which consists in this, viz., that man makes what is nothing, the not-existing, his highest and best—his God. If now it be the calling and task of the prophets and men of God to do battle with idolatry, and to represent it in its thorough perverseness and blameworthiness, it is quite proper to hold it up to contempt; this is done by ridicule, which, when reasons and proofs are unavailing, is the most effective instrument. The prophets have a divine right of ridicule of idolatry, which they often employ (cf. Isa_40:17 sq.; Isa_41:7; Isa_44:8-22; Isa_46:5-11; Jer_10:7 sq.) in the sense in which it is said by the holy God Himself that he mocks and ridicules the ungodly (Psa_2:4; Psa_37:13; Psa_59:9). As, in the time of Ahab, idolatry was so strong and powerful that it threatened to overwhelm the worship of the true God, so in the moment when a choice was to be made between Baal and Jehovah, the opportunity was at hand to make by ridicule the worship of idols contemptible. Krummacher remarks very appositely upon this: “What a free, undaunted courage does it presuppose, what inward repose and elevation, what an assured confidence of the genuineness and truth of his cause, and what a firm certainty that he will win,—that at his momentous appearance upon Mount Carmel Elijah can employ ridicule!”
5. The slaughter of the priests of Baal is in many ways adduced as a serious objection against the prophet, and is characterized as “fanatical hardness and cruelty” (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 318). But it appears otherwise if instead of taking the stand-point of the New Testament or of modern humanitarianism, we occupy that of the Old Testament and of the prophet. The first and supremest command of the Israelitish covenant declares: I am Jehovah, thy God; thou shalt have none other gods before me: upon it rest the choice and the separation from all peoples, the independent existence of the nation; with it stands and falls its world-historical destiny. The actual rejection of this command carried with it per se exclusion from the peculiar and covenant people, and was hence punished with death (Exo_22:19; Deu_13:5-18; Deu_17:2-5). But idolatry had never been so rampant in Israel as under Ahab. It was not merely tolerated, but had become the State-religion and threatened to overwhelm the adoration of the one true God, and so at the same time to destroy the covenant, and to take from Israel its character as the chosen, peculiar people. Elijah was called to restore the broken covenant, and to put an end to idolatry. Through the extraordinary, wonderful assistance of God, he had in fierce battle achieved this result—that the people turned again to Jehovah their God. To make this permanent, it was necessary that an effectual bar should be placed against any further activity of the foreign supporters and representatives of the idolatry. Now, if ever, the attestation of Jehovah ought not to be fruitless; satisfaction should be made to the law, and execution take place. The restoration of the covenant, without the slaughter of the Baal-priests, was but half accomplished. As every ἀðïêáôÜóôáóéò is in its nature more or less a êñßóéò (Mal_4:5 sq.), so also was the day upon Carmel a day of judgment. Elijah there stood, not as a private person, nor as a leader of a popular party, but as the second Moses, as an executor of the theocratic law. The objection about hardness and fanaticism falls not upon him, but upon the law, the consequences of which he executed; and he who blames him must object to the whole Mosaic institution as hard and fanatical. When even he who was gentle and lowly of heart says: “But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither,