1 Kings 19:1-8

Elijah Flees from Jezebel

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”

3 And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

6 And he looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 A second time the angel of the LORD returned and touched him, saying, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.”

8 So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, ^[a] the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 19

This chapter gives us a further account of Elijah, of his being obliged to flee for his life through the threats of Jezebel, 1Ki 19:1-4, of the care the Lord took of him, providing food for him, in the strength of which he went to Horeb, 1Ki 19:5-8, of the Lord's appearance to him there, and conversation with him, 1Ki 19:9-14, of some instructions he gave him to anoint a king over Syria, another over Israel, and a prophet in his room, 1Ki 19:15-18, and of his finding Elisha, and throwing his mantle over him, who left his secular employment, and followed him, and became his servant, 1Ki 19:19-21.

Footnotes

• [a] That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai