1 Kings 17:21

21 Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”

1 Kings 17:21 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 17:21

And he stretched himself upon the child three times
Or "measured himself" ^F9 on it, or put himself into a posture in some respects equal to the child; putting his mouth on its mouth, his eyes on its eyes, his hands on its hands, as Elisha afterwards did in a like case, perhaps in imitation of him, ( 2 Kings 4:34 ) , thereby showing his great affection to the child, and in order to increase it the more, and to make him the more fervent and importunate in his prayers for its life; and hereby signifying also that he would if he could infuse his breath and life into it, and warm it with his own heat:

and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this
child's soul come into him again:
which shows that the child was really dead; and a proof this that the soul dies not with the body, but exists in a separate state without it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (ddmtyw) "et mensus est se", Pagninus, Montanus; "admensus se", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

1 Kings 17:21 In-Context

19 But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.

20 Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on this widow who has opened her home to me, by causing her son to die?”

21 Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”

22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived.

23 Then Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look, your son is alive,” Elijah declared.