1 Kings 19:1-11

Elijah Flees from Jezebel

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and ¹how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "²So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."

3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to ³Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and ⁴he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was ⁵an angel touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat."

6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."

8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food ⁶forty days and forty nights to ⁷Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elijah at Horeb

9 Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, ⁸the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

10 He said, "⁹I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, ¹⁰torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And ¹¹I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

11 So He said, "¹²Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD was passing by! And ¹³a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

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1 Kings 19:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 19

This chapter gives us a further account of Elijah, of his being obliged to flee for his life through the threats of Jezebel, 1Ki 19:1-4, of the care the Lord took of him, providing food for him, in the strength of which he went to Horeb, 1Ki 19:5-8, of the Lord's appearance to him there, and conversation with him, 1Ki 19:9-14, of some instructions he gave him to anoint a king over Syria, another over Israel, and a prophet in his room, 1Ki 19:15-18, and of his finding Elisha, and throwing his mantle over him, who left his secular employment, and followed him, and became his servant, 1Ki 19:19-21.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 13

1. 1 Kings 18:40
2. Ruth 1:17; 1 Kings 20:10; 2 Kings 6:31
3. Genesis 21:31
4. Numbers 11:15; Jeremiah 20:14-18; Jonah 4:3, 8
5. Genesis 28:12
6. Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28; Deut 9:9-11, 18; Matthew 4:2
7. Exodus 3:1; Exodus 4:27
8. Exodus 33:21, 22
9. Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14
10. Romans 11:3, 4
11. 1 Kings 18:22
12. Exodus 19:20; Exodus 24:12, 18
13. Ezekiel 1:4

Footnotes 8

[a]. Lit "all" about "how"
[b]. Lit "soul"
[c]. Lit "soul"
[d]. Reading of many mss; Heb text may read "saw"
[e]. Lit "soul"
[f]. Or "broom-tree"
[g]. Lit "soul"
[h]. Or "broom-tree"