1 Kings 17:21

21 He stretched himself out on the child three times and called to Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh my God, please let the life of this child return within 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 Then he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her lap and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and he laid him on his bed.

20 Then he called to Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh my God, are you also causing evil to come upon the widow with whom I [am] dwelling as an alien by causing her son to die?"

21 He stretched himself out on the child three times and called to Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh my God, please let the life of this child return within him."

22 Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned within him, and he lived.

23 Elijah then took the child and brought him down from the upper room to the house and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, "Look, your son [is] alive."