1 Kings 17:21

21 He stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to ADONAI: "ADONAI my God, please! Let this child's soul come back into 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 "Give me your son," he said to her. Taking him from her lap, he carried him into the room upstairs where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.

20 Then he cried out to ADONAI: "ADONAI my God! Have you brought also this misery on the widow I'm staying with by killing her son?"

21 He stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to ADONAI: "ADONAI my God, please! Let this child's soul come back into him!"

22 ADONAI heard Eliyahu's cry, the child's soul came back into him, and he revived.

23 Eliyahu took the child, brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Eliyahu said, "See? Your son is alive."