1 Kings 18:27

27 At noon Elijah started making fun of them: "Pray louder! He is a god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps he's gone off on a trip! Or maybe he's sleeping, and you've got to wake him up!"

1 Kings 18:27 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:27

And it came to pass at noon
When they had been from the time of the morning sacrifice until now invoking their deity to no purpose:

that Elijah mocked them;
he jeered and bantered them:

and said, cry aloud;
your god does not hear you; perhaps, if you raise your voice higher, he may;

for he is a god;
according to your esteem of him, and, if so, he surely may hear you: unless

either he is talking;
with others about matters of moment and importance, who are waiting on him with their applications to him; or he is in meditation; in a deep study upon some things difficult to be resolved:

or he is pursuing;
his studies, or his pleasures, or his enemies, to overtake them; or he is employed on business ^F20:

or he is in a journey;
gone to visit his friends, or some parts of his dominions; so Homer ^F21 represents Jupiter gone to pay a visit to the Ethiopians, and as yesterday gone to a feast, and all the gods following him, from whence he would not return until twelve days; and in like manner Lucian ^F23 speaks of the gods, mocking at them:

or, peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked;
with a loud crying to him: it being now noon, Abarbinel thinks this refers to a custom of sleeping after dinner; Homer ^F24 also speaks of the sleep of the gods, and which used to be at noon; and therefore the worshippers of Baal ceased then to call upon him; and it is said ^F25, the Heathens feared to go into the temples of their gods at noon, lest they should disturb them; but such is not the true God, the God of Israel, he neither slumbers nor sleeps, ( Psalms 121:4 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 211. 1.
F21 Iliad. ver. 1. 423.
F23 Jupiter Tragoedus.
F24 Ut supra, (Iliad. ver. 1. 423.) in fine, & Iliad. 2. ver. 1, 2.
F25 Meurs. Auctuar. Philol. c. 6. apud Quistorp. in loc.

1 Kings 18:27 In-Context

25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Since there are so many of you, you take a bull and prepare it first. Pray to your god, but don't set fire to the wood."

26 They took the bull that was brought to them, prepared it, and prayed to Baal until noon. They shouted, "Answer us, Baal!" and kept dancing around the altar they had built. But no answer came.

27 At noon Elijah started making fun of them: "Pray louder! He is a god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps he's gone off on a trip! Or maybe he's sleeping, and you've got to wake him up!"

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

29 They kept on ranting and raving until the middle of the afternoon; but no answer came, not a sound was heard.