1 Kings 18:30

30 Then Elijah said to the people, "Come closer to me," and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

1 Kings 18:30 In-Context

28 So the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers, according to their ritual, until blood flowed.
29 They kept on ranting and raving until the middle of the afternoon; but no answer came, not a sound was heard.
30 Then Elijah said to the people, "Come closer to me," and they all gathered around him. He set about repairing the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.
31 He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel.
32 With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. He dug a trench around it, large enough to hold about four gallons of water.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.