1 Kings 18:37

37 Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, [are] God and that you have turned their hearts back again."

1 Kings 18:37 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:37

Hear me, O Lord, hear me;
&c.] Which repetition is made to express his importunity, and the vehement earnest desire of his soul to be heard in such a case, which so much concerned the glory of God; the Targum is,

``receive my prayer, O Lord, concerning the fire, receive my prayer concerning the rain;''

as if the one respected the sending down the fire on the sacrifice, and the other sending rain on the earth; and which sense is followed by other Jewish writers:

that this people may know that thou art the Lord God;
and not Baal, or any other idol:

and that thou hast turned their heart back again;
from idolatry, to the worship of the true God; though some understand this of God's giving them up to a spirit of error, and suffering them to fall into idolatry, and hardening their hearts, as he did Pharaoh's; but the former sense is best.

1 Kings 18:37 In-Context

35 The water went all around the altar, and the trench also was filled [with] water.

36 It happened at the offering of the [evening] oblation, Elijah the prophet went near, and he said, "O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; let it be known today that you [are] God in Israel and [that] I [am] your servant and [that] I have done all of these things by your words.

37 Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, [are] God and that you have turned their hearts back again."

38 Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and it consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust; and the water which [was] in the trench it licked up!

39 When all the people saw, they fell on their faces and said, "Yahweh, he [is] God! Yahweh, he [is] God!"