1 Kings 17:18

18 So she said to Elijah, "¹What do I have to do with you, O ²man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!"

1 Kings 17:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 17:18

And she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou
man of God!
&c.] As if she should say, it would have been well for me if I had never seen thy face, or had any conversation with thee; this she said rashly, and in her passion and agony, being extremely affected with the death of her child, which made her forget and overlook all the benefits she had received through the prophet's being with her:

art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my
son?
to punish her for her former sins, she was conscious she had been guilty of; for she supposed, that as it was by his prayer that the drought and famine were come upon the land, so it was in the same way that her son's death came, namely, through the prayer of the prophet.

1 Kings 17:18 In-Context

16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

17 Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

18 So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!"

19 He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.

20 He called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"

Cross References

• 1. 2 Samuel 16:10; 2 Kings 3:13; Luke 4:34; John 2:4
• 2. 1 Kings 12:22

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Have you come...death?"