So Ahab went up to eat and to drink
Up to his chariot, as some think, or rather to some place higher than that in which he now was:
and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel;
higher still, where he both might be alone, and have the opportunity of observing the clouds gathering, and the rain coming:
and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his
knees;
expressive of his humility, and of his earnestness, and vehement desire, and continued importunity, that rain might fall; for this was a posture of prayer he put himself into, and continued in; and it is certain that it was through his prayer that rain came, ( James 5:18 ) and from hence came the fable of the Grecians concerning Aeacus praying for rain in a time of drought, when it came F8. So the Chinese writers F9 report that at the prayers of their emperor Tangus, after a seven years' drought, great rains fell.