1 Kings 18:43

43 and saith unto his young man, `Go up, I pray thee, look attentively the way of the sea;' and he goeth up and looketh attentively, and saith, `There is nothing;' and he saith, `Turn back,' seven times.

1 Kings 18:43 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:43

And said to his servant
Whom some take to be the son of the widow of Sarepta, but he must be too young to be employed in such service as this was:

go up now;
still higher on Mount Carmel; than where he was, even to the highest point of it:

look towards the sea:
or the west, as the Targum, the Mediterranean sea, which lay to the west of the land of Israel:

and he went up and looked, and he said, there is nothing;
there was nothing in the sky, or arising out of the sea, that looked like or foreboded rain:

and he said, go again seven times;
till he should see something.

1 Kings 18:43 In-Context

41 And Elijah saith to Ahab, `Go up, eat and drink, because of the sound of the noise of the shower.'

42 And Ahab goeth up to eat, and to drink, and Elijah hath gone up unto the top of Carmel, and he stretcheth himself out on the earth, and he placeth his face between his knees,

43 and saith unto his young man, `Go up, I pray thee, look attentively the way of the sea;' and he goeth up and looketh attentively, and saith, `There is nothing;' and he saith, `Turn back,' seven times.

44 And it cometh to pass, at the seventh, that he saith, `Lo, a little thickness as the palm of a man is coming up out of the sea.' And he saith, `Go up, say unto Ahab, `Bind -- and go down, and the shower doth not restrain thee.'

45 And it cometh to pass, in the meantime, that the heavens have become black -- thick clouds and wind -- and the shower is great; and Ahab rideth, and goeth to Jezreel,