1 Kings 18:37

37 Dear me, O Lord, hear me: that this people may learn that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart again.

1 Kings 18:37 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:37

Hear me, O Lord, hear me;
&c.] Which repetition is made to express his importunity, and the vehement earnest desire of his soul to be heard in such a case, which so much concerned the glory of God; the Targum is,

``receive my prayer, O Lord, concerning the fire, receive my prayer concerning the rain;''

as if the one respected the sending down the fire on the sacrifice, and the other sending rain on the earth; and which sense is followed by other Jewish writers:

that this people may know that thou art the Lord God;
and not Baal, or any other idol:

and that thou hast turned their heart back again;
from idolatry, to the worship of the true God; though some understand this of God's giving them up to a spirit of error, and suffering them to fall into idolatry, and hardening their hearts, as he did Pharaoh's; but the former sense is best.

1 Kings 18:37 In-Context

35 And the water run round about the altar, and the trench was filled with water.

36 And when it was now time to offer the holocaust, Elias, the prophet, came near and said: O Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, shew this day that thou art the God of Israel, and I thy servant, and that according to thy commandment I have done all these things.

37 Dear me, O Lord, hear me: that this people may learn that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart again.

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

39 And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces, and they said: The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.