1 Kings 18:37

37 answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, and this people doth know that Thou [art] Jehovah God; and Thou hast turned their heart backward.'

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 goeth round about the altar, and also, the trench he hath filled with water.

36 And it cometh to pass, at the going up of the [evening-]present, that Elijah the prophet cometh nigh and saith, `Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to-day let it be known that Thou [art] God in Israel, and I Thy servant, that by Thy word I have done the whole of these things;

37 answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, and this people doth know that Thou [art] Jehovah God; and Thou hast turned their heart backward.'

38 And there falleth a fire of Jehovah, and consumeth the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and the water that [is] in the trench it hath licked up.

39 And all the people see, and fall on their faces, and say, `Jehovah, He [is] the God, Jehovah, He [is] the God.'