1 Kings 18:27

27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

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, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.”

26 So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.

27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

28 So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.

29 They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or is busy somewhere else, or is engaged in business.