1 Kings 18:30

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.

1 Kings 18:30 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:30

And Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me
And observe what I do, and what will be done at my request:

and all the people came near unto him;
left the prophets of Baal to themselves, and took no more notice of them, but attended to what the prophet should say and do:

and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down;
which had been set up when high places and altars were allowed of, while the tabernacle was unsettled, and the temple not built; this is supposed to have been erected in the times of the judges; though, according to a tradition of the Jews ^F4, it was built by Saul, see ( 1 Samuel 15:12 ) but had been thrown down by the idolatrous Israelites, who demolished such as were erected to the name of the Lord everywhere, and built new ones for their idols, ( 1 Kings 19:10 ) . Benjamin of Tudela ^F5 says, that on the top of Mount Carmel is now to be seen the place of the altar Elijah repaired, which is four cubits round.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Jarchi & Kimchi in loc.
F5 ltinerar. p. 37.

1 Kings 18:30 In-Context

28 So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.

29 Midday passed, and they kept on raving until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no response; no one answered, no one paid attention.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.

31 And Elijah took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, “Israel shall be your name.”

32 And with the stones, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.